http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1449692,00.html
Joint US-UK cover-up alleged over GM maize
Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Friday April 1, 2005
Guardian
The whereabouts of 170,000 tonnes of contaminated GM maize and
its possible import into the UK has caused an international
investigation and claims of a cover-up on both sides of the
Atlantic.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) first
put out a statement saying the contamination was "on a small
scale" but later retracted it, instead saying the maize was
unlikely to have got into food but might have been fed to cattle.
The maize is not licensed to be grown in Europe and contains a GM
antibiotic-resistant marker of a type scientists have advised the EU
to phase out. It is theoretically possible for bacteria to become
resistant to antibiotics as a result of contact with the marker genes
- although the company which developed the maize, Syngenta, denies
it.
The row intensified yesterday because it was realised that the US
administration had known of the contamination since December, but did
not notify Britain until late last month when an article in Nature
revealed the problem.
One GM maize, BT10, not licensed for Europe, was found to have been
mixed up with another GM maize, BT11, which was licensed. The two
varieties produce the same proteins, which led Syngenta and the US
watchdogs, the food and drug administration and the environment
protection agency, to claim there was no problem; the two crops were
the same.
It was a line that Defra followed until it was realised that BT10
contained the suspect antibiotic marker. This caused anti-GM groups to
claim a cover-up by the company and the US administration.
Markus Payer, a spokesman for Syngenta in Switzerland, said yesterday
that 37,000 acres (15,000 hectares) of the suspect seed had been grown
unknowingly in the US between 2001 and 2004. It appeared BT10 seed had
been planted in the belief it was the licensed BT11. As a result the
harvested crops were mixed and sold. This was not discovered until
routine tests in December 2004 revealed BT10's DNA sequence.
A Syngenta spokesman said 150,000 tonnes would have been marketed but
it believed only a tiny amount reached Europe. Only 18% of US maize
was exported and less than 1% came to Europe. He conceded that, before
2004, GM maize destined for Europe was not labelled, so it would be
impossible to know where it had gone. The company and the US
authorities were investigating and would notify all concerned as soon
as possible.
Lindsay Keenan, a Greenpeace campaigner, said: "It is
unbelievable that Syngenta, after four months of preparation for
releasing this information, should say that these GE crops are
physically identical ... This case exposes the basic unpredictability
of GMOs [genetically modified organisms], the incompetence of Syngenta
to handle GMO seeds safely, the complete lack of regulatory controls
in the US, and the lack of implementation of controls in the
EU."
The European Food Safety Authority, which advises EU states, said
marker genes conferring resistance to ampicillin "should be
restricted to field trials and not be present in GM plants placed on
the market". And the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the
international food standards body, has urged the agricultural biotech
industry to use alternative methods to refine GM strains in the
future.
Brian John, of GM Free Wales, accused the US authorities and the
British government of trying to cover up the problem. "Nobody,
either in the government or in the food safety agencies, appears to be
doing anything."
Defra said it believed only a small amount of the maize may have
been imported, and was unlikely to be in food, only cattle feed. There
was no danger to the public.