- BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Some
genetically modified (GM) crops are highly likely to cross-breed with
organic
or wild plants, posing a risk to farms certified as GM-free, according
to a European Union report obtained by Reuters on Friday.
-
- The European Environment Agency (EEA), the EU
environmental
data body, looked at six crop types to see how much cross-pollination
occurs
with neighboring crops or wild relatives.
-
- The study found that oilseed rape, sugar beet and maize
-- three key GM crops -- had a medium or high likelihood of transferring
genetic material. Potatoes, wheat and barley were unlikely to cross-breed,
it said.
-
- "Oilseed rape can be described as a high-risk crop
for crop-to-crop gene flow and from crop to wild relatives," the
report
said. "At the farm scale low levels of gene flow will occur at long
distances and thus complete genetic isolation will be difficult to
maintain."
-
- The findings will increase environmentalists' concerns
that GM crops could introduce unwanted genetic changes to wild plants and
could strengthen the hand of organic farmers who want to ensure GM crops
are kept well away from their fields.
-
- CONTAMINATION FEAR
-
- Earlier this week a British organic farming group said
111 organic farms were at risk of contamination by nearby GM crops despite
government-imposed separation distances to keep the GM crops away from
other farms.
-
- The EEA report said there was, as yet, no sure way of
ensuring GM crops could be completely isolated from conventional strains
or organic farms.
-
- "The use of isolation zones, crop barrier rows and
other vegetation barriers between pollen source and recipient crops can
reduce pollen dispersal, although changing weather and environmental
conditions
mean that some long distance pollen dispersal will occur," the report
said.
-
- A spokesman for the EU biotech industry association
Europabio
said organic farmers were being unreasonable to demand absolutely no
cross-pollination.
-
- "Cross-pollination is normal and natural, it
happens,"
Europabio's Simon Barber told Reuters. "(The organic lobby) has
unilaterally
declared 'our standard is zero and if we find anything it causes us
harm'."
-
- Organic farmers set thresholds for the presence of small
amounts of pesticides from other farms, he said, and should do the same
for cross-pollination.
-
- The European Union is struggling to create a coherent
policy on GM foods, caught between pressures from the biotech and farm
lobbies and the U.S. government to allow the new crops and fierce anti-GM
lobbying by environmental and consumer groups.
-
- The 15-country bloc has had an informal ban on new GM
strains since 1998 while it draws up tough new measures on testing crops
to ensure their safety, labeling them so consumers can, if they wish,
choose
GM-free food.
-
- Because of the moratorium on new strains, at present
only a handful of GM crops may be imported or planted in the EU.
-
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