Stop GM Foods: Super-viruses threat to farms

GENETICALLY ENGINEERED crops, altered to be resistant to common plant viruses, risk creating new mutant strains of "super-viruses" which could wipe out entire farms, a damning research report commissioned by the Government has warned.

The report, ordered under the Government's Genetically Modified Organisms Research Programme, has found that plants engineered to be resistant to common viruses could in fact lead to the creation of more virulent strains which could spread throughout the British countryside. The report, prepared for the Department of the Environment by the Scottish Crop Institute, has been seized on by ecological campaigners as evidence that the countryside could be irrevocably damaged by introducing GM crops.

The report says that there is insufficient research to determine the long-term effects of introducing viral resistance. Environmentalists fear that indigenous plants could be wiped out by the new viruses created by genetic engineering.

"This report indicates that we are playing with science we simply do not understand," said Pete Riley, food and biotechnology campaigner for Friends of the Earth.

The report was seen by officials at the Department of the Environment two years ago, but has remained secret until now. Michael Meacher, the Environment Minister, ordered the report to be published earlier this month. MPs, who were promised first sight, have not yet been shown copies.

Genetically engineered viral resistance is designed to give crops protection against common scourges which can scar or kill a plant. Several varieties of virus-resistant plants, including potatoes and sugar beet, have already been grown in "test" fields in Britain.

The report also warns that within years the very plants engineered to be resistant to viruses could develop a greater susceptibility to the viruses they are supposed to be protected against. They could then pass on this new susceptibility to ordinary crops and wild plants.

The scientists advise that detailed studies of plant life in the areas where such GM crops are grown are vital before they are sown. It says that the bigger the fields the greater the risks of unknown side effects.

The GM plants are made resistant to viruses by inserting, like an inoculation, part of the virus's genetic make-up.

Scientists warn that genetic engineering will make viruses more prevalent in the countryside. "The likelihood of plants being exposed to a virus is a billion times more likely," said Dr Ricarda Steinbrecher,a genetic biologist advising the Women's Environmental Network. "At the moment viruses are confined to a few plants and a few cells in that plant. But because every cell of every plant in a field will be genetically engineered, the potential for spreading the virus will be far greater than ever.This report re-emphasises the lack of research. It is very revealing and worrying."

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