January 20, 2003

scientists comment on new research into the environmental impact of GM crops

The research, which will feed into the Government’s Science Review on GM, produced evidence on some of the major concerns about the possible impact of GM crops on the environment and wildlife in the UK.

Broom’s Barn Research Station has developed a simple band spraying technique for GM sugar beet that promises significant environmental benefits. Only the weeds closest to the crop are killed early in the season, allowing those between the rows to grow and provide environmental benefits for longer than is possible in other weed control systems. The researchers claim this produces benefits for bugs that live on the weeds, and the birds that feed on them.

Professor Ian Crute, director of the Institute of Arable Crops Research, said:

“The Broom’s Barn studies with herbicide tolerant GM sugarbeet illustrate clearly why sound scientific research should always provide the basis for policy decisions. Use of herbicide tolerant beet could deliver a real ‘win-win’ for sustainable agriculture and the environment.”

Professor Phil Dale Leader of the Genetic Modification and Biosafety Research Group at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, said:

“The results of the Broom’s Barn experiments are interesting and significant because they demonstrate how GM herbicide tolerant sugarbeet plants provide the means to develop weed control strategies that may well be more favourable to wildlife than those used in conventional sugarbeet crops.

“One of the difficulties with weed control in conventional sugarbeet is that particular herbicides must be applied at specific developmental stages of the crop. As a consequence, herbicides are sometimes applied to conventional sugarbeet as an insurance against future weed infestation, rather than when and where they are needed in the crop.

“This research provides targeted weed control, minimise the impact on crop yield while allowing sufficient weed growth to support wildlife food chains.”

Archie Montgomery, Chairman of the National Farmers’ Union Biotechnology Working Group, said:

“The application of this particular GM technology appears to offer a serious opportunity for reducing chemical inputs, producing benefits to the environment and potentially substantial reductions in costs for the farmer.

“With consumer acceptance, this crop management system could have exciting prospects. However, ultimately it has to be up to society to decide whether it wants to exploit GM technology.”

Dr Sandy Knapp, a botanist at the Natural History Museum, said:

“It looks like very interesting work. The thing about measuring biodiversity, though, is that more species doesn’t necessarily make for a better ecosystem. It’s pretty easy to count the numbers of species in a field, but it’s far more important for that ecosystem to be self-sustaining. That is a lot harder to measure.”

Professor Alan Gray, director of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Dorset, said:

“Whilst the UK Farm Scale Evaluations of GM herbicide tolerant crops will give us a fuller comparative picture across a range of crop species, this work provides a fascinating insight into the potential use of such technologies. I hope it will encourage people to think ‘outside their boxes’, particularly the one that says ‘GM equals agricultural intensification equals loss of biodiversity’.”

Stephen Smith, chairman of ABC, the AgBiotech Council, said:

“At last a valid piece of peer reviewed science that addresses the potential this technology may have when practically applied to UK farming systems. Farming is being challenged to change it’s production methods and here is a sound piece of science that suggests that GM technology could be one of the tools to allow farming to move in the direction society wishes.”

Dr Juliet Vickery, head of the Terrestrial Ecology Unit at the British Trust for Ornithology, said:

“In principle, we support these sorts of management strategies for making GM crops more environmentally friendly. But is there really enough evidence from these experiments to show biodiversity has significantly improved in these fields? Conventional farming is usually not particularly good for the environment, so having a GM crop that is ‘as good as’ conventional for the environment won’t be enough to stem or reverse the current decline in farmland wildlife.

“The other big question is: will farmers actually stick to this spraying strategy? The critical issue is how late in the season the average farmer would tolerate these weeds?”

Professor John Hillman, director of the Scottish Crop Research Institute, said:

“The advent of GM crops provides opportunities and challenges to address the environmental footprint effects of all types of agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. Clearly, the bank-spraying technique developed by Broom’s Barn Research Station for herbicide tolerant sugar beet is a valuable advance in environmentally friendly farming for row crops. There are a range of such options that are only possible with crops derived using biotechnology.”

Dr John Mumford, Deputy Head of the Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Imperial College, London, said:

“This research seems to offer significant environmental benefits, and the full effects could only be achieved using GM herbicide tolerant sugar beet. Conventional herbicides are widely used on sugar beet, but this research demonstrates how GM technology can allow farmers to use fewer, more eco-friendly herbicides, and also reduce mechanical cultivation of their fields.

“They have reduced the number of weeds that compete for nutrients, while keeping enough weeds between the rows of sugar beet to maintain ground cover for beneficial species.”