Posted on 23-1-2002

GE Exclusion Zones Grow
By Charles Clover for The Daily Telegraph, January 19, 2002

In what amounts to a major climbdown, the Government has accepted that
there is a case for creating vastly greater exclusion zones around
genetically modified crops to prevent genetic pollution of conventional and
organic crops that could render them unsaleable.

UK Ministers have also accepted that the results of farm-scale trials into
GM crops' effects on the environment will not settle whether GM varieties
are given the go-ahead. Margaret Beckett, the Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs Secretary, has promised a public debate on the results after the
trials finish next year. She also extended from four to six weeks the
period of consultation with local people before a GM crop trial can be
grown this year. The most significant change in position, however, is the
concession that the pollution threshold should be set at a level 10 times
lower than previously. Mrs Beckett says: "There is a case for separation
distances to be greater so as to ensure a maximum of, for example, 0.1 per
cent cross
pollination." At present, the separation distance for oil seed rape is 50
yards from a conventional or organic crop.

A leading expert on cross-pollination, Prof Jean Emberlin of the National
Pollen Research Unit at University College, Worcester, said yesterday that
it would be difficult to set realistic separation distances that would
ensure cross-pollination was kept down to Mrs Beckett's 0.1 per cent limit.
That was because - in the case of oil seed rape for example - the range
was so great. New proposals by the European Commission suggest a 5,000-yard
separation zone around GM crops. But this could still result in a maximum
cross-pollination of 0.3 per cent. Different types of pollen behave in
different ways, making it easier to achieve desired levels in some crops
than others.

Adrian Bebb, of Friends of the Earth, said: "The Government is definitely
shifting its position on GM crops and it is recognising that its
controversial farm-scale trials are not going to have all the answers. "It
is also recognising that they are causing contamination and genetic
pollution and recognising that there is a case for massively increasing
separation distances."

Human genes in cows 'jumps the gun'
By Simon Collins, NZ HERALD, 23.01.2002

Scientists at the state-owned AgResearch Institute want to move ahead of
the law and insert human genes into cows to find a treatment for multiple
sclerosis.

The institute has been accused of "jumping the gun" by applying before laws
have been drafted to consider the ethical implications. It wants to do a
series of experiments, each involving "several tens" of cows, in a
"containment paddock" at Ruakura, near Hamilton. It hopes to breed cows
whose milk will contain proteins that can be extracted to help treat
multiple sclerosis, and eventually other diseases.

Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons called on the Government last
night to defer the application until it sets up a bioethics council, as
recommended by the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification last year.
"There isn't even draft legislation to set up this council. AgResearch is
rather jumping the gun." The application is being notified in daily
newspapers today by the Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma).

Submissions close on March 7.

AgResearch's general manager of science, Dr Paul Atkinson, said the
application would allow continuation of research started 18 months ago to
breed cows whose milk contains the human myelin protein. The new breeding
programme, if approved, will extend to other proteins, targeting a variety
of diseases. It is expected to take three to four years, and possibly up to
10.

A consultant to the Ngati Wairere people who are the tangata whenua of
Ruakura, Maree Pene, said her tribe had been represented on a monitoring
group set up by AgResearch last month, but still opposed the application
because it involved "mixing of whakapapa [blood lines]". The AgResearch
application, posted on Erma's website last night, "recognises that the risk
to the relationship of Maori [particularly Ngati Wairere] with their taonga
[treasures] is likely to be significant". But the application concludes:
"AgResearch does not believe that this risk outweighs the benefits of the
research."