§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the impact of contamination by GM crops on surrounding plant life; what estimate she has made of the radius from sites that could be contaminated by GM crops; and if she will make a statement. [125957]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 15 July 2003]: Each application for consent for the release a GM crop into the environment must have a full and thorough risk assessment made of its potential impacts. This assessment is scrutinised by the Government's statutory Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) and is made on a case-by-case basis according to the characteristics of the particular crop. It includes a consideration of the likelihood and consequences if a GM crop were to spread through cross-pollination (with other crop plants or wild relatives) or through seed movement.
ACRE have considered all the GM crops that have been grown in the UK and consent has only been granted where appropriate measures have been taken to avoid adverse effects on the surrounding environment. In the case of the crops in the farm-scale evaluations, the GM crops were kept separate from commercial crops. The separation distances were based on advice from the National Institute of Agricultural Botany published in August 2000 and are not intended to eliminate any cross pollination with equivalent crops at greater distance, but rather to limit it severely. ACRE advised that the actual occurrence of cross-pollination with other crop plants, or wild relatives in the case of oil seed rape, would present no undue risk to human health or the environment. The potential of such cross-pollination is one of the factors being examined in the Farm Scale Evaluation.