By Richard Gray

A trial of genetically modified potatoes that could help protect billions of
pounds worth of crops from disease is to be abandoned after scientists
admitted it was futile to conduct such research on crops in the UK.

The scientists claim that sabotage by environmental protesters has made it
too expensive to conduct GM crop trials in this country under the current
regulations, that require the exact location of each trial to be made
public.

They called on the Government to allow the location of small scale trials to
be kept secret or to establish a high security facility where research on
genetically modified plants could be protected from vandals.

One of only two trials on GM plants being conducted in Britain this year was
destroyed last month by protesters at a field near Tadcaster, North
Yorkshire, who pulled up the crop.

Scientists at Leeds University had been hoping to test the effectiveness and
environmental impact of a new type of genetically modified potato that was
resistant to attack from tiny cyst nematode worms.

Cyst nematodes cost the UK farming industry more than ?50m a year and more
than 80 per cent of potato fields in the country are affected by the pest.
Worldwide, nematodes costs more than ?60bn and can effect damage important
crops such as bananas, which form up to 25 per cent of the diet in many
African countries.

Professor Howard Atkinson, who led the trial, said he had decided to abandon
research after the destruction of the crops. He is now due to meet with
Environment Minister Phil Woolas later this year to discuss ways of
protecting GM trials.

He said: "Is it appropriate for universities to put up security that will
cost a six figure sum to protect research from unlawful acts by zealots? We
are not going to pursue the cyst nematode trials at the moment. I am not
sure what the future holds for GM trials.

"I can only see two solutions. The first would be to have the Government
regulate and assess trials but not publish their location or, and I think
this is less likely, to have some sort of nationally secure trial field."

The cyst nematode trial, which consisted of 400 plants, cost of around
?25,000. To put up security fencing and 24 hour surveillance to protect the
plants from protesters would have cost at least another ?100,000.

The only other GM trial currently being carried out in the UK is with
potatoes that have been engineered to be resistant to potato blight which
was vandalised last year in Cambridge. The remains are now protected by
security fencing with 24 hour patrols.

Under existing laws, full details of every GM crop trial must be disclosed
in advance on a Government website, with a six-figure grid reference
identifying the precise location of the field.

Critics insist that GM crops could be harmful to the environment and almost
all of the 54 GM trials conducted in the UK since 2000 have been targeted by
protesters because of these fears.

GM companies and scientists now want the rules changed so that they can
conduct small scale trials at secret locations so they can help to answer
some of the questions that still surround the effectiveness and safety of GM
crops.

Professor Wayne Powell, director of the National Institute of Agricultural
Botany where the potato blight trials are being conducted, added: "The
decision to release the six figure grid reference is a matter for the
Government, but it is an issue that needs to be addressed
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