Kiss of death for GM seed

Government plans to allow GM maize, Cardon LL, to be added to the national seed list - the final legal barrier before a seed can be commercially grown - has hit the rocks after the Ministry of Agriculture admitted that basic test data may not meet minimum legal requirements.

"This fiasco has only come to light because Friends of the Earth and ordinary members of the public forced the Government to hold a public hearing on the listing of this GM seed," said Friends of the Earth Legal Advisor, Peter Roderick. "Only a week after the BSE report was published, we now find that the minimum official testing of this crop has simply not taken place. If the hearing had not happened, this vital information would never have come to light and the crop would have been given official approval. This is yet another humiliating blow to the biotech industry and their backers in Government."