May 26, 2000 / BBC
The world's leading supplier of seeds, Pioneer Hi-Bred, has, according to this story, said claims that up to 15% of Europe's maize crop contains genetically modified material may well be true.
A company spokesman was cited as telling the BBC he was not surprised by the claim, which was made on Wednesday by the environmental group, Greenpeace.
The spokesman, Simlon Preece, said the GM material could have crossed into supposedly pure supplies via wind pollination or contamination from seed-crushing machines, which process both types of seed.
The BBC environment correspondent, Alex Kirby, says that Pioneer Hi-Bred's admission will embarrass the British government which has argued that it is in control of the spread of genetically modified material. He says it also raises questions about the ability of other species to withstand contamination by GM crops, despite the European ban on their commercial planting.
The British Government said it would take no action as it believed genetically modified plants did not pose a risk to health.
However one of the government's senior independent advisers, Professor Alan Gray, indicated to the Daily Telegraph newspaper on Friday that he thought it was in any case too late to halt the spread of GM seeds in Britain.
Professor Gray said: "It seems that in terms of GM crops the genie is out of the bottle in this country."
"But it is not out of control," he insisted, emphasising that the contaminated rapeseed posed no risk to people or the environment.
European agriculture ministers are gathering in Portugal this weekend ahead of talks about GM crops on Monday and Tuesday.
Britain's minister, Nick Brown, said he had proposed that they should try to adopt a common approach to the issues raised by the Advanta disclosure.
The Pioneer Hi-Bred spokesman, Mr Preece, whose company supplies both genetically modified seeds and non GM seeds to farmers all over Europe, appealed to the ministers not to impose strict rules on seed suppliers to ensure purity of supply.
He said that while Pioneer had the technology to detect impurities down to 0.1% of a batch, to be required to do so in every case would ruin many companies.
In theory, he said, this could mean the rejection of nine of out every 10 tonnes.
Mr Preece said Pioneer and other suppliers would be happier with an impurity target closer to 1%.
Analysts say that Pioneer's admission will fuel the anger of environmental groups, who fear there is now no way of halting the spread of GM material, and no way of ensuring that any food product is 100% GM free.
(posted without permission)
