CONCERN over the accidental planting of genetically modified seed on several
farms in Europe reached fever pitch last week. And now a company in the US has
warned that the problem is probably commonplace.
鈥淢y guess is that it happens all the time,鈥� says Jeffrey Smith, vice
president of marketing and communications at Genetic ID of Fairfield, Iowa. The
company, which screens agricultural produce for GM material, found that more
than half of 20 random samples of conventional seed taken from American
distributors contained some GM seed.
The latest European furore began with the news that farmers throughout the
continent have planted conventional oilseed rape containing traces of a sterile
GM variety known as RT 73, which has not been approved for commercial planting
in Europe. In Britain alone, 9000 hectares were sown with the adulterated seed
in 1999, followed by 4700 hectares this spring.
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In other European countries, including France and Sweden, ministers have
considered ordering the destruction of affected crops. Opponents of GM crops
accused governments of allowing the release of such crops before their
environmental impact had been properly evaluated.
But this week, Genetic ID told New 杏吧原创 that such contamination
might be just the tip of the iceberg. It says that in tests done last year, but
not widely publicised, 12 out of 20 random American consignments of conventional
maize seed contained detectable traces of GM maize. Two of these contained
almost 1 per cent GM maize.
Pioneer Hi-Bred, the largest supplier of both
conventional and GM seeds in the US, acknowledged that low levels of mingling
are inevitable. 鈥淎bsolute zero purity is not achieved in any agricultural
produce anywhere in the food chain,鈥� says Doyle Karr, a spokesman for the
company.
Karr says Pioneer鈥檚 conventional maize seeds exported to and grown in Europe
could well contain traces of Bt maize, a GM variety that makes a toxin lethal to
larval pests. But he adds that European governments have already approved this
variety.
But other GM crops that have not been approved have probably been planted on
European farms. In 1998, Britain imported a total of 491 000 tonnes of soybeans
for sowing from the US and Canada. If an estimated 1 per cent were GM, roughly
5000 tonnes of GM soybeans were unwittingly imported. The Ministry of
Agriculture does not break down statistics according to how much imported seed
is used directly in food, and how much is planted on farms.
Many in the industry believe the solution lies in internationally agreed
testing procedures and limits on contamination. Smith thinks a 0.1 per cent
limit should be set for accidental contamination. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 offer 0 per cent,
because it鈥檚 not scientifically feasible or defensible,鈥� he says.
But such limits would raise another dilemma鈥攚ho shoulders the
responsibility if the threshold is breached? Farmers think seed suppliers should
carry the can. 鈥淭he seed suppliers need to guarantee what that seed is, and bear
social and economic responsibility for that,鈥� says Gary Goldberg of the American
Corn Growers Association.
But segregating crops won鈥檛 be easy. Farmers in the US send their seed to
elevators, companies that pool seed from many farmers and then sell it on for
distribution and export. A survey of almost 1200 elevators by Pioneer shows few
are willing to test their deliveries and segregate GM from non-GM crops this autumn
(see Table).
However, Smith is confident that the companies are already
taking the lessons on board. 鈥淢y guess is that when harvest comes around, the
percentage testing and segregating will be much higher.鈥�
