Committee will decide on next round of GM plantings
The Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) meets tomorrow morning (10/3/00) at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) to agree the national programme of GM crop trials for 2000.
The SSC originally wanted 25 trial sites per crop but has since agreed to accept 12 - 15. However, the SSC still insists that it be given a larger pool of farms from which to select a sample which is 'representative' of UK agriculture. SSC members have indicated that this would be approximately double the numbers of trials needed, meaning that the biotech industry must find a total number of 24 - 30 potential sites for each crop.
Notes to editors:
[1] The farmscale trials are Government-sponsored field trials of four kinds of GM crop: spring oil seed rape, winter oil seed rape, maize and beet. They are intended to assess the environmental impacts of GM crops on UK biodiversity but have been widely attacked as representing an unacceptable source of genetic pollution.
[2] Twenty-eight Greenpeace volunteers go on trial at Norwich Crown Court on April 3rd to face charges relating to an action at a field trial of GM maize in July last year.
Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on: 020 7865 8255
