Published: 07 December 2004
Growing GM Crops Bad For Wildlife?
Scientists at English Nature, the Government's independent wildlife advisor, have assessed the full report of the BRIGHT study on the management of some GM herbicide tolerant (GMHT) crops published 30th November 2004.
They have concluded that these findings support the evidence from the 5-year Farm Scale Evaluations (FSEs) that the farming methods used with GMHT sugar beet and oil seed rape crops can be harmful to wildlife.
English Nature believes the results of these experiments neither challenge nor contradict the results of the FSEs. The overall conclusion of both studies is that weed control in GMHT crops is more effective and reliable than conventional intensive agriculture.
This risks further reducing our already impoverished farmland wildlife by destroying even more weeds that it depends on.
The report confirms that the experiments were not designed to assess the ecological sustainability of using GMHT crops unlike the FSEs which were specifically designed for this purpose.
Seeds left behind by plants form a seed bank in the soil which is a valuable source of food for wildlife and allows the plants to re-grow the following year.
The authors of the BRIGHT report state clearly that their seed bank results cannot be compared to those of the FSEs (because the BRIGHT experiments used different methodologies, different rotations, and experienced adverse weather conditions).
For these reasons we believe that few scientifically valid conclusions can be made from the BRIGHT experiments on the impacts of GMHT cropping systems on soil seed banks.
Dr Brian Johnson, English Nature's biotechnology advisor, said:
"This new study adds little to what we already know about the impacts on wildlife of these cropping systems.
We know from the Government's larger study that using these systems with GM oilseed rape and beet crops would reduce densities of wild plants and insects in our already impoverished countryside.
They should not therefore be grown commercially. We will be asking the Advisory Committee for Releases to the Environment (ACRE) to consider the validity of the scientific data presented in the BRIGHT report and to assess the implications of these results for the conclusions of the FSEs."
Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB's Director of Conservation, said:
"This research tells us nothing about the impacts GM will have on wildlife.
The Government funded farm-scale evaluations published last year demonstrate clearly that if GM herbicide tolerant beet and oil seed rape were grown in the UK they would exacerbate the problems faced by our threatened farmland wildlife."
Further information:
GM Crops
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