www.czu.cz ; www.usab-tm.ro ; www.raupp.info

Independent Scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH)
recently completed a contract for DEFRA titled ?Monitoring movement of
herbicide resistant genes from farm-scale evaluation field sites to
populations of wild crop relatives", July 2005.


The full report has now been published on the DEFRA website and can be
found by following the link below.

Commenting on the report Dr Les Firbank, co-ordinator of the farm-scale
evaluations of GM crops at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, said the
impact of GM resistant weeds would be "pretty much non-existent".

"It's recognised that gene flow from GM crops to wild relatives is a
potential problem, but in this case it happens very, very rarely and there
are no environmental consequences," he said. "Some people would say any gene
flow at all is unacceptable. I personally think the risk is low enough to be
acceptable."

Dr Rosie Hails, head of the Pathogen Population Ecology Research Team within
the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said: ?Hybrids between these two species
referred to in the study (oil seed rape and Sinapis arvensis) are not only
rare, but previous studies have shown they do not produce viable seeds. Thus
they do not persist - and so are not weeds, let alone superweeds.?

[www.defra.gov.uk]

------------------------------------------
Posted to Phorum via PhorumMail