CALLS for a moratorium on the commercial planting of engineered crops have
been rejected by the British government. Instead, it intends to move towards
allowing them be grown for sale via 鈥渇arm scale鈥� trials. If these reveal harm to
the environment, 鈥渨e can take appropriate action鈥�, says environment minister
Michael Meacher.
The trial plots will be bigger than any plots grown in Britain to date, but
for now will be restricted to crops made tolerant to herbicides. Similar trials
of plants modified to produce insecticides will be delayed for at least three
years, as the government fears that these crops could pose a threat to species
that are not pests.
Biotechnology companies are pleased to have avoided an outright ban. 鈥淭his is
the way to get data together to challenge claims that these crops damage the
environment,鈥� says Nigel Poole, head of regulatory affairs at Zeneca Plant
Science in Bracknell, Berkshire.
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English Nature, the government conservation watchdog which had been pressing
for a moratorium, expects the measures to 鈥済ive time for further research into
gene escape and allow ecological experiments to be done鈥�.