 Experimental
GM crops were studied for over 10 years
By BBC News Online's Ivan Noble
Genetically
modified (GM) crops show no signs of turning into super-weeds,
according to a 10-year study.
Researchers
planted GM varieties of oilseed rape, potato, maize and sugar
beet alongside conventional crops in 12 different areas in the
UK to see whether the GM plants could invade natural habitats.
Environmentalists
have argued that GM crops might crossbreed with wild plants, producing
more weedy offspring. But the Imperial College team found that
native wild plants displaced both GM and ordinary crops and that
the GM crops were actually outlived by the conventional ones.
Reporting
their findings in the science journal Nature, the researchers
said most of the crops died out after four years, and after 10
years the only survivor was one type of non-GM potato.
'No surprise'
When the study
began, the kinds of GM plants available were varieties engineered
to make them better able to withstand spraying with herbicides
or insect attack.
One of the
report's authors, Rosemary Hails, told BBC News Online that the
results came as no surprise, as such traits were unlikely to help
a plant survive in the wild.
 Protesters
fear GM crops could turn into super-weeds
"We wouldn't
expect herbicide tolerance to give a plant an ecological advantage,"
she said.
The report's
authors stress that they only looked at specific kinds of GM crop
and did not look at new crops engineered to withstand drought
or natural pests.
"Our
results do not mean that other genetic modifications could not
increase weediness or invasiveness of crop plants, but they do
indicate that arable crops are unlikely to survive for long outside
cultivation," they wrote in Nature.
"We will
always have to be careful about managing crops and about spraying
regimes to ensure that we don't end up with varieties in places
we don't want them," Dr Hails added.
Industry
welcome
The scientific
group CropGen, which is backed by the crop industry, welcomed
the study.
"These
results confirm what many plant geneticists and ecologists have
long expected: that super-weeds are not lurking round the corner
of every GM plantation," CropGen's Professor Howard Slater
said.
The environmental
group Friends of the Earth (FoE) also welcomed the study's findings.
Adrian Bebb,
food campaigner at FoE, said: "They add to our knowledge
on the survival of crops in the wild.
"However,
the research provides no guarantee that GM super-weeds will not
establish themselves in the wider environment.
"This
risk will increase significantly if the government succeeds with
its plans to conduct GM trials at over 90 sites throughout the
UK," he added.
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