THE SUNDAY TIMES
September 15, 2002
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-416027,00.html
GM crop taints honey two miles away, test reveals
Mark Macaskill
edited

According to this article, evidence that genetically modified (GM) crops
can contaminate food supplies for miles around has been revealed in
independent tests commissioned by The Sunday Times.  The tests found alien
GM material in honey from beehives two miles from a site where GM crops
were being grown under government supervision. It is believed to have been
carried there by bees gathering pollen in the GM test sites.

The disclosure, showing that GM organisms can enter the food chain without
consumers  or even farmers  knowing they are present, will undermine
assurances by Tony Blair and ministers that such crops can be tested
without contaminating the food chain.

The GM material was found in honey sold from farmer David Rolfe's hives at
Newport-on-Tay in Fife, almost two miles from one of 18 sites holding
trials of GM oil-seed rape. A test carried out by GeneScan, a respected
independent laboratory in Bremen, Germany, checked for traces of an NOS
terminator, one of four modified genes which make the crop resistant to
pesticides. This proved positive.

A second test confirmed that GM material in the honey could have come only
>from oil- seed rape grown at Wester Friarton, in Newport-on-Tay, by
Aventis, one of the world's biggest biotechnology firms. The fact that the
GM
material travelled such a distance makes a mockery of the government's
50m-200m crop-free ’ buffer zones that were created around GM sites to
protect neighbouring farms. Critics have claimed that the GM crop trial
sites are too close to other farms. America has buffer zones of up to 400m,
Canada up to 800m, and the European Union recommends a 5km (three-mile)
zone for GM oilseed rape.

The tests will bring pressure on Aventis, which was accused of a serious
breach of regulations earlier this year after GM trials in 12 sites were
contaminated with antibiotic genes. These are controversial because of the
danger of gene transfer to bacteria in animals and humans, who could become
immune to common life- saving antibiotics.

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