By Dan Buglass
Scientists at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI), which is
based at Invergowrie, near Dundee, have been awarded a share of a ?400,000
grant to investigate techniques relevant for the safety assessment of
genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Working in partnership with a team at the John Innes Centre in Norwich
the scientists will research improved and more rapid methods for determining
whether plant genes may be disrupted by the genetic modification process and
if entirely new proteins might arise from the GM process.

The new process will also aid the development of diagnostic tools for
GM plants. It will also enable scientists to trace GMOs in the food chain as
part of the EU's regulatory regime. The funding has come from the Food
Standards Agency and builds on significant funding already obtained by SCRI
for GMO safety assessments.

Leading the work at SCRI will be Dr Mark Taylor and Professor Howard
Davies.

Taylor said: "Methods for producing GM plants are continually being
improved."

Professor Davies, who is a member of the European Food Safety
Authority (EFSA) GM panel, added: "Europe has a rigorous system for the risk
assessment of GMOs. An important starting point in the process is the
molecular characterisation of what happens when transgenes are inserted into
the plant's DNA.

GM crop trials of potatoes with genes to produce resistance to late
blight control were recently authorised in England. Late blight caused the
great potato famine in Ireland in 1845-46 during which over one million
people starved to death while a million more emigrated. Only recently has
the population of Ireland recovered.

The growing of GM crops on a commercial basis is banned throughout the
EU. However, in parts of the world, including the US, South America and
China huge tracts of land are now down to GM crops such as soya, maize and
canola (oilseed rape).

Farmers are also prohibited from using GM-derived material in animal
feeds in the conditions attached to virtually every recognised farm
assurance scheme. That much is made clear to consumers on the labels of
beef, pork and chicken in supermarkets.

But livestock producers are now faced with a huge increase in feed
costs, perhaps as much as 40 per cent over the last 12 months. Only last
week proposals to allow the importation of GM maize into the EU for feed
purposes were rejected by the EU's standing committee on the food chain and
animal health. This was despite clearance from EFSA that deemed the maize
variety "Herculex" to be safe.

The Irish government had previously indicated that it would favour a
relaxation of the ban on GM crops, always provided they were reserved for
animal feeds. But at the last minute in the Brussels meeting the junior
Irish agriculture minister Trevor Sargent of the Irish Green Party, which is
part of the coalition administration with Fine Gael, opted to abstain on any
moves to allow imports of GM maize. Sources in Dublin told The Scotsman
yesterday that farmers now face the inevitability of even higher costs with
little prospect of recovering that expense from supermarkets.

The proponents of GM technology, and they include a sizable number of
UK farmers, claim that crops require substantially less inputs of herbicides
and that the yields are generally higher than those from conventional crops.

However, those who oppose GMOs allege that there is a real danger of
cross-contamination with conventional varieties. Sensible discussion has not
been helped by some vivid press coverage, not the least of which was the
phrase "Frankenstien crops."

There is general agreement within the scientific community that the
entire issue was very badly handled when the technology first became
available. Some claim that agriculture will have to embrace GMOs if the
world's rapidly growing population is to be fed. This issue cannot be
ignored for much longer.


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