ACRE APPROVES SECRET GM CROP TRIALS

The Committee which advises the Government on GM releases into the
environment has been caught "with its pants down", recommending that Bayer
Cropscience should be allowed to conduct GM winter oilseed rape trials
without revealing the locations.

The members of the Advisory Committee on Releases into the Environment
(ACRE) were caught in the act by a vigilant FoE member who checked the
minutes of the ACRE meeting of 4th September (1).  She discovered that ACRE
members had acceded to Bayer's request under the "simplified application
procedure" to conduct GM crop trials over the winter with notification of
site details only "prior to harvest."  This meant that Bayer could notify
DEFRA of the six-figure grid references for GM crop plantings on the day
before harvesting, and that harvesting would be over and done with by the
time that the site information was placed by DEFRA onto the public register.
In plain English, this meant that the crop trials would be held at secret
locations.

Brian John, a spokesman for GM Free Cymru, accused ACRE of abandoning the
public interest and promoting the interests of the GM multinationals.  "This
is not the first time that this has happened," he said. "For the last few
years ACRE has a record of recommending approvals for GM crop plantings in a
totally cavalier fashion, and those of us who have watched the GM scene
carefully have become convinced that the committee is incapable of objective
analysis of the facts.  Over and again it has turned a blind eye to breaches
of the regulations, and it has arrogantly dismissed the representations of
those of us who have urged caution.  We now know from the results of the
environmental monitoring of the FSE programme that our caution has been
justified, and we can only conclude that the work of ACRE has been
underpinned by bad science.  In our view this Committee is now discredited,
and we have asked the Secretary of State to wind it up before it gets the
chance to do more harm."

GM Free Cymru also claims that ACRE has acted with "utter contempt" for the
safety of the environment in issuing this advice to the Secretary of State.
"At its meeting on 4th September, the ACRE Committee and Secretariat were
fully aware of the results of the FSE monitoring programme which show that
GM oilseed rape plantings are more harmful to the environment than other GM
crops," said Dr John.  "There is no recognition of this in the minutes of
the meeting, showing that ACRE is incompetent as well as irresponsible. The
Committee clearly has no idea what the precautionary principle means, and we
are now convinced that it is knowingly promoting GM plantings which are
damaging to the environment.  It has betrayed the Secretary of State as well
as the British public."

The only positive feature of this episode is that Secretary of State
Margaret Beckett apparently refused to accept the ACRE recommendation, and
insisted that Bayer should submit full six-figure grid references for its GM
plantings at the time of sowing.  This caused Bayer to announce last week
(2) that it would pull out of all GM crop trials in the UK for the time
being.


ENDS

Notes 

1. FROM ACRE MINUTES -- 4th September 2003 meeting:

6. Applications to market or release GMOs under Directive 2001/18/EC

6.1 Application for Part B consent from Bayer CropScience Ltd to release
genetically modified winter oilseed rape - 03/R38/1: National List Trial
site locations ACRE/03/P39

ACRE had agreed that consent could be issued for these trials under the
first simplified procedure. In supplying the site locations Bayer had
departed from standard practice, only giving the county of release and
arguing that this was sufficient for risk assessment purposes. ACRE was
asked to consider whether this was the case.

Bayer's intention was to protect sites from vandalism, so they did not wish
to release the six-figure grid reference until shortly before harvest. The
GM inspectorate preferred to know the exact reference shortly after sowing
so it could carry out inspections at the appropriate time. ACRE did not
consider Bayer's decision led to an increased risk to human health or the
environment but was concerned that failure to notify precise references
would disadvantage people nearby who would have known of the site locations
in the past and would have been able to modify their activities accordingly
e.g. producers of organic honey.

ACRE was satisfied that any advice provided on this issue would be specific
to this consent for this particular GMO and although no additional risk was
identified the committee felt that the consequences of Bayer's decision
should be noted in ACRE's advice. ACRE felt local interested parties should
be informed. It was agreed that Bayer needed to provide six figure
references prior to harvest, once notified these site details would be made
available in the public domain. Bayer would also be required to provide
sufficient information so that the inspectorate could operate their normal
procedures.

===============================

(2)  Top GM food company abandons British crop trials

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday September 28, 2003
The Observer

A key GM crop developer, Bayer, has decided to halt UK trials of genetically
modified plants. The move is seen as a major blow to the industry. Bayer was
the last company carrying out GM trials in the UK, though it said yesterday
it hoped to start up again soon when conditions were 'more favourable'.
The company blamed Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett for its decision.
Her insistence that the locations of all trial sites be made public had
forced its hand, a spokesman told The Observer.

Until last week, Bayer CropScience, Bayer's crop subsidiary. believed it was
close to a deal that would allow GM crop test sites - which are regularly
destroyed by protesters - to be kept secret. Instead of having to publish
exact map references for fields, companies would only have to name the
county in which it was holding a trial.

The Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment had said this vaguer
notification was 'acceptable in terms of risk assessment', while the police
have always complained that explicit disclosure of test site locations has
been a major factor in aiding 'crop-trashers'. But at the last minute the
Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told Bayer it
would not support this change in regulations.

'In the absence of any moves to ensure the security for trials, Bayer
CropScience has no choice, therefore, but to cease its variety trial
activities in the UK for this coming season,' said the official. 'It is
disappointing the criminal activities of a small minority of people have
prevented information on GM crop varieties being generated.'

Most GM crop trials carried out over the past few years have been sabotaged,
not only those of Bayer. Other companies have pulled out. Now Bayer, the
last to continue with them, has decided to call it a day. The current 'brain
drain' of UK agricultural scientists to the US and Canada is now only likely
to intensify.

The fact that companies also specifically blame Beckett for this latest blow
is particularly intriguing. Last week, a letter from Beckett to her fellow
Ministers said Britain should back EU laws that ban all GM-free zones, a
move that would give the go-ahead to the commercial growing of GM crops
here.

But as long as test GM trials are exposed to sabotage, the prospects of
commercial growing look remote. 'This is a back-door moratorium,' said an
industry source.

robin.mckie@observer.co.uk