May 17, 2000 / Reuters/PA News
LONDON -- The U.K. government was cited as saying in these stories Wednesday
that British farmers are unknowingly growing genetically modified crops
after buying contaminated oilseed rape from Canada.
Used in foods ranging from chocolate to ice cream, the canola is then being
sold to consumers as a GM-free product, despite, the stories say, strict
rules on food labelling and uncertainty about possible hazards associated
with the technology.
Advanta Seeds UK, which imported the seeds to Europe, was cited as saying
it informed the government last month of the contamination. Advanta is a
50-50 venture between Anglo-Swedish group AstraZeneca Plc and Dutch
cooperative Cosun.
The oilseed rape was cross-pollinated in Canada by a GM crop growing in a
nearby field and then exported to several European countries. The Food
Standards Agency was cited as saying the seeds appeared to have been
affected by a Monsanto Co GM rapeseed crop.
A spokesman for the Friends of the Earth campaign group was quoted as
saying, "Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, so to speak, it is very
hard to put it back in."
Jim Thomas, a Greenpeace food campaigner, was quoted as saying, "We are very
angry. It is such a clear example of the government not siding with the
consumer or the environment, or even European law, but jumping to the
defence of biotech."
Junior agriculture minister Baroness Hayman was quoted as saying, "There is
no risk to public health or the environment. However, the issue of seed
purity is a serious one. The farmer and his customer do not expect to find
that a crop of conventional seed contains an unexpected or unacceptable
level of GM material."
Advanta was cited as issuing a statement saying the GM level was so small it
was almost beyond the limit of detection, adding, "Advanta believes the GM
crops will provide valuable benefits in the future. However it is sensitive
to the fact that some have genuine concerns about the technology."
Paul Hayward, a spokesman with the UK Food Standards Agency was cited as
saying the crops posed no risk to human health, adding, "It should never
have happened but it did. We've gone through all the testing and were
satisfied about safety," and that the government would now make spot checks
of seed imports and was working with the industry to develop a code of
practice to monitor seed sourcing and GM content.
Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, was quoted as saying, "We
believe it's the government's responsibility to track down the 600 farms
involved and destroy the crop. This is commercial planting through the back
door."
Holden was further cited as saying that as genetically modified crops became
more widespread, there was less and less chance for consumers to avoid them,
adding, "The idea of a world of choice is an illusion. It adds further
evidence to our argument that you have to says yes or no to genetic
modification. ... It drives a coach and horses through the rationale for the
tests." Adrian Bebb, a food and biotechnology spokesman for Friends of the Earth
(FoE), was quoted as saying, "Leaving these crops in the ground is just not
an option. Avanta seeds are tracking down all the farmers and this has to
happen very quickly."
FoE's Bebb was further cited as saying it was "scandalous" that the
government sat on the news for a month.
David Buckeridge, spokesman for Advanta Seeds, was quoted as telling Reuters
on Thursday that, "We believe Sweden, France and Germany are also affected. ... In Germany and France in particular we're talking about hundreds of
hectares in an area of millions of hectares."
Buckeridge was further cited as saying that Advanta had first heard there
was a suspicion of cross-contamination on April 3. It started a full testing
programme, informed the British government on April 17 and asked for guidance.
The tests showed the contamination involved less than one percent of the
seed imported by Advanta. The mixed GM and non-GM seed had in turn been
planted on less than one percent of the oilseed rape crop area in Britain.
Buckeridge complained there were no rules on what to do in the
circumstances, adding, "There don't appear to have been any laws broken."
The main problem was there was no threshold for saying below which seed
would not be described as contaminated.
"We're saying let's get together and work out limits. This is a public
confidence matter. We think it's urgent," Buckeridge was further quoted as
saying. "There's no risk to health, but it doesn't take away the need for
regulation." There was also a need for tests to be standardised.
The delay in getting test results was a biological fact of life, Buckeridge
said. "You can't make a plant grow any faster. You're working at the speed
biology allows you to work at."
Later stories on Thurs. have Anna-Clara Sjoestroem, an official in the crop
division of the Swedish Board of Agriculture as saying Thursday it may order
farmers growing rapeseed contaminated with genetically modified material to
destroy the crop, but dismissed concern it could harm humans, animals or the
environment, adding, "We are thinking about ordering the destruction of the
crops. We're waiting to hear from other organizations to see what they think
about this." A decision from the board on how to handle the
crop would probably be announced early next week.
In a statement on Tuesday, the board said it had been alerted to the
contamination on Monday by a Swedish seed company, Svaloef Weibull, which
bought the rapeseed last year from Canada.
(posted without permission)
