"Acre's competence on GM safety has been seriously called into question by expert independent scientists" - from item 4

1.GM Crops - Experts to Publish Advice (UK)
2.EU Commission to Relaunch GM Maize Approval Bid
3.Germany ready to legalise GM corn
4.Can we trust the experts? One from the archive
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1.GM Crops - Experts to Publish Advice
By Amanda Brown, Environment Correspondent, PA News
http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2401631

The controversy over genetically modified crops was set to resurface today as an expert panel published its advice to the Government on farm scale trials.  The Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (Acre) was giving its verdict to ministers, who were then considering the next step forward.

The Acre document follows a warning from another panel, the Scientific Steering Committee last October which carried out nationwide field scale GM crop trials last year.  These showed that growing GM herbicide-tolerant beet and spring rape is worse for wildlife than the conventional varieties.

Scientists monitoring the spring sown crops, said some insects such as bees in beet crops and butterflies in beet and spring rape were recorded more often in and around the conventional crops because there were more weeds to provide food and cover.

There were also more weed seeds in conventional beet and spring rape crops than in their GM counterparts. These seeds are important in the diet of some animals and birds.

However, the results showed that some groups of soil insects were found in greater numbers in herbicide-tolerant GM beet and spring rape crops.  There were more weeds in and around the herbicide-tolerant GM maize crops, more butterflies and bees around at certain times of the year and more weed seeds.

The controversial study launched four years ago by the then environment minister Michael Meacher was criticised by environmental groups.

Protesters destroyed some fields of GM crops complaining that the danger of cross pollination with ordinary crops would ruin the livelihoods of organic farmers.

Opponents also fear GM technology could lead to the emergence of new herbicde resistant weeds which could cause havoc in the countryside.

Another report published last November by the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission, which advises the Government on issues surrounding the new and controversial technology, says farmers must be able to respond to present and future national and international market demands.

AEBC chairman, Professor Malcolm Grant, said: “We have made no assumption whether the commercial growing of GM crops will get the go ahead or not.”

The report, GM Crops? Coexistence and Liability, said if GM crops were to be grown commercially, farmers growing them should be required to follow legally enforceable crop management protocols.

There should be special arrangements for compensation for farmers suffering financial loss as a result of their produce exceeding statutory thresholds through no fault of their own, with a view to an insurance market developing in due course

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2.EU Commission to Relaunch GM Maize Approval Bid
BELGIUM: January 13, 2004
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23424/story.htm

BRUSSELS - The European Commission is to resume its fight to authorize the sale of genetically modified sweetcorn this week, another step toward lifting a five-year-old ban on biotech products, officials said yesterday.  The move comes as some EU states are putting in place the legal framework to govern the planting of GM crops should the EU drop its ban. German Farm Minister Renate Kuenast said yesterday she would propose rules in February to ensure organic and conventional farmers received compensation if their fields became contaminated with genetically modified organisms.

The European Commission tried and failed to get a committee of EU experts to approve the BT-11 maize, marketed by Swiss firm Syngenta, late last year. The EU executive is now taking the issue higher, to EU ministers.

"The European Commission plans to adopt the proposal (to authorize GM maize) tomorrow if there are no objections," said Commission spokeswoman Beate Gminder, adding that a delay could not be ruled out given the controversial nature of the issue.

Once the Commission has adopted the proposal, ministers have three months to decide, starting from the end of January.  If the 15-nation bloc fails to reach agreement, but also does not muster enough votes under the EU's complex voting system to reject the proposal, the Commission would be able to authorize the BT-11 maize under its own initiative.

EU scientific experts from the 15-nation bloc were split down the middle on allowing the biotech sweetcorn onto supermarket shelves at the end of 2003.

The pro-biotech United States is fighting the EU's five-year ban on new types of genetically modified crops and food in the World Trade Organization. It argues that the EU acted illegally and without scientific justification in halting all imports.

Environmentalists do not want the EU to bow to U.S. pressure. They argue that GM crops harm the environment and are unsafe for human consumption.

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3.Germany ready to legalise GM corn
By Ray Furlong
BBC Berlin correspondent
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3390627.stm
[image caption: Genetic diversity is at stake, warn anti-GM campaigners]

Germany has announced it is