Read more: Click here to read the original, longer version of this story
FOR the second time, genetically modified (GM) crops have been found cross-breeding in the wild. The finding confirms anti-GM campaigners鈥� fears, but may not be a huge threat.
Meredith Schafer of the looked for escaped GM canola on roadsides in North Dakota, a hub of GM canola production. At a meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Austin, Texas, this week, she reported finding it at 288 out of 631 sites; 80 per cent were resistant to either 鈥榮 glyphosate herbicide or 鈥榮 glufosinate. Two plants, just 0.7 per cent of the total, were resistant to both, a sign that genes from separate GM fields had mixed in wild plants. Similar plants were found in Canada in 2001.
Advertisement
The crucial question is whether the genes will benefit the plants, says of the University of Reading, UK. They will give feral canola an advantage where those herbicides are used, but will not protect them against other threats like bad weather. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 particularly significant,鈥� he says.
鈥淭he herbicide-resistance genes will only give feral canola an advantage where those herbicides are used鈥�