The GM crop trial programme in Britain has been thoroughly undermined by a new investigation into the use of weedkillers by US farmers growing GM crops, says environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth (FoE).
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The claim follows yesterday’s [Tuesday] BBC “Newsnight” investigation. Although the GM trials in Britain involve the exclusive use of glufosinate ammonium (GA), farmers growing the same crop commercially in the US have resorted to a mix of GA and the far more damaging weedkiller Atrazine.
In the Newsnight report, agricultural experts reveal that between 75% and 90% of US GM maize growers are using a product called Liberty Atz – a mixture of Aventis’ weed killer GA and Atrazine, the traditional herbicide used on maize crops. Atrazine has been a problem pesticide for decades, and washes readily into rivers and groundwater. It is an EU Red List pesticide and is on the EU Priority List for hormone disrupting effects in animals.
During Seed Listing Hearings in the UK, Aventis/Bayer have claimed that one of the main benefits of GM maize will be the substitution of atrazine with glufosinate ammonium. Company documents state that glufosinate ammonium has a safer Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) assessment than atrazine and is not as mobile in the soil as atrazine and so will not have the same effects on watercourses as atrazine and has a significantly better environmental profile than atrazine.
FoE’s food and farming campaigner Pete Riley said: “Aventis’ pro GM maize propaganda has been thoroughly undermined by Newsnight’s findings. In the US, farmers were sold GM crops with a promise that atrazine would not be needed. But the reality seems to be very different. Because glufosinate is not as effective as Aventis has claimed, we are threatened with a new regime combining the worst of GM and the worst of the old system.
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By GlobalData“Meanwhile, the credibility of the government’s Farm Scale Trials has been further undermined. The public have been told that the GM crop trials will show how GM crops will be grown in farming practice. But this has now been shown to be nothing more than a con trick.”
