Pollen Research Casts Doubt on GM crop Trials

New research by British botanists published New Scientist shows that pollen blown from large fields of genetically modified (GM) oilseed rape remains fertile over greater distances than expected - highlighting fears that the Government's safety measures for GM crop trials are inadequate.

Even at sites 400 metres away from transgenic (GM) plots, as many as 7 per cent of the seeds (from non-GM oilseed rape plants) were herbicide resistant. In another research report, scientists from the Scottish Crop Research Institute in Dundee, told a conference at the University of Keele that oilseed rape pollen had been found 4 km from the nearest source - further that it had been previously discovered. The research says that "bees may be important pollen vectors over a range of distances" and concludes that "the results suggest that farm-to-farm spread of OSR [oilseed rape] transgenes will be widespread."

The results are at odds with safety measures currently demanded by the Government for GM crop trials. They also highlight one of Friends of the Earth's concerns with the farm-scale trials programme of GM crops which only operates a 50 metre 'buffer' zone.