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Dept of the Environment Transport and the Regions

Answer

Mr. Tyler: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what residue seeds are in the natural seed bed in the sites in Cornwall selected in 1989 for genetically modified crop trials; and if he will make a statement. [151794] Mr. Meacher: [holding answer 5 March 2001]: Researchers from Imperial College London carried out trials of genetically modified (GM) and conventional crop plants in 1990 at four sites in Cornwall that had been selected in 1989. The researchers have been monitoring the sites since 1990 and have recently reported the fate of the seeds and resultant plants in the journal Nature (Nature, 2001, Transgenic crops in natural habitats, 409, 682-683). They report that the populations of both GM and non-GM plants declined after the first year. For maize all lines were extinct at the start of the second year. All beet were extinct by the end of the third year and all oil seed rape were extinct within four years. No trace of GM plants was found when the sites were checked after 10 years in 2000.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

151794; 364 c629W

Session

2000-01

Subjects

Crops Cornwall Genetically modified organisms Research Maize Pulses and seeds

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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