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Subject:
From:
Allen Dick <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 1 Oct 1999 12:34:56 -0600
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Subject: UK : New Fears over GM Crops
From: Godfrey Bartlett <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 1999/09/30
Newsgroups: sci.agriculture.beekeeping
UK : Shock surprise!
UK Government finds that Bees carry GM-comtaminated pollen < 3 miles!


The UK Government says it will review the distances it
allows between genetically-modified (GM) and other
crops after tests showed GM pollen could travel as far as
4.5 kilometres (2.7 miles).

The current isolation barriers mean GM crops must be more than 50
metres from conventional crops and 200 metres from organic fields.

But a monitoring exercise set up by the pressure group Friends of the
Earth and the BBC's Newsnight programme found pollen travelled up to
20 times those distances.

Tests around a GM trial site at Watlington in Oxfordshire showed
that airborne pollen had carried distances of up to 475 metres.

Pollen carried by bees had reached beehives at distances between 500
metres and 4.5 kilometres from the site.

The Environment Minister, Michael Meacher, told the BBC: "I accept we
need to look at it again. They may need to be larger than they are at
the present time.  We need to look at this evidence which has been
presented and make a decision."

Although it has been known for a long time that pollen
can travel many tens of kilometres, this is the first study
looking specifically at the movement of GM pollen. It will
be useful in assessing the impact of the farm-scale trials
now underway in the UK. The work was carried out
during June and July by the national Pollen Research
Unit and a bee specialist.

With pollen from oilseed rape capable of surviving for up to
three days, there is concern that it could fertilise compatible
species.

"The commercialisation of these crops should not take  place until
 we have enough information to make decisions about whether they
 will have an effect on biodiversity and in our countryside," said
 Brian Johnson of English Nature.
The study is the first to find GM pollen in beehives.
Honey packers do their own tests for it, but none has yet been
 discovered.

"Most of the honey comes from commercial beekeepers and they're
already well used to moving their hives around to follow the various
 crops, and they will avoid GM sites," said Laurie Keys of
the Honey Association,

"Of course, if it gets more widespread and extends beyond more than
 just a few trial sites, then it would be more of a concern."

Friends of the Earth is calling for the government to abandon the
 whole GM trials programme.
----------
Godfrey Bartlett
Essex UK.
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