THREE separate seed companies have made mistakes in field trials of genetically modified crops in the US and Britain, raising questions about the standard of quality control in thousands of open-field tests.
In Hawaii, two companies failed to follow regulations designed to make sure pollen from GM maize doesn鈥檛 contaminate other crops, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. And in Scotland, a seed company discovered that the GM canola, or oilseed rape, it was testing contained a small amount of another kind of GM rape that wasn鈥檛 supposed to be there.
The incidents are the latest in a long series of errors and mix-ups involving GM crops (New Scientist, 23/30 December 2000, p 22), although in none of these cases has there been any evidence of harm to the environment or human health.
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Last week, the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington DC published letters sent by the EPA to Mycogen Seeds and Pioneer Hi-bred International. The EPA says they didn鈥檛 follow proper procedures while setting up test plots in Hawaii for a root-worm-resistant maize that has a gene for a bacterial toxin.
In particular, Mycogen failed to plant trees to act as a windbreak and didn鈥檛 plant a buffer of hybrid corn to prevent pollen spread. And Pioneer Hi-bred planted maize in an unapproved location, too close to other crops. A Pioneer Hi-bred spokeswoman denies the company broke any rules. Mycogen says it is investigating the matter.
The incidents are worrying because the US doesn鈥檛 fully assess whether GM crops are safe to eat until after field trials have been carried out. With other experimental crops there might be a risk to human health if food crops near trial sites were contaminated by stray pollen, although in this case the toxin from the added gene has been shown to be safe to eat.
Earlier this month, the Bush administration did propose tightening the rules, so that companies would have to submit details to the EPA and the Food and Drug Administration about novel proteins that might cause allergies before trials take place. But even if the proposals are accepted, they won鈥檛 come into force for months.
In Britain, food safety assessments are carried out before field trials. But that doesn鈥檛 help if the wrong crop is planted. Aventis CropSciences mixed up the seed for a herbicide-resistant rape approved for field trials with seeds from an unapproved variety that contained genes for antibiotic resistance.
The level of contamination was low 鈥� just 3 per cent 鈥� and other crops with these genetic modifications have already been grown commercially in other countries without any problems. Nevertheless, Aventis鈥檚 admission sparked a media furore. Britain鈥檚 Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it will consider toughening the rules and checks on seed purity.
Watchdog groups say the incidents raise serious concerns about safety. 鈥淭his is another example of the industry鈥檚 inability to regulate the pollen flow and the gene flow of these crops, and to follow the recommendations and guidelines they and the agencies have worked out to protect public and environmental health,鈥� says Doug Gurian-Sherman of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.