GM Crop Trial Locations May Be Hidden From Public

[babylonsister]

GM Crop Trial Locations May Be Hidden From Public
by Ian Sample

Genetically modified crops may be grown in hidden locations in Britain amid fears that anti-GM campaigners are winning the battle over the controversial technology, the Guardian has learned.

Officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed they are looking at a range of options to clamp down on vandalism to GM crop trials, after intense lobbying by big crop biotech companies. The firms have warned that trials of GM crops are becoming too expensive to conduct in Britain because of the additional costs of protecting fields from activists.

This week, a report from the GM industry claimed that worldwide agricultural use of genetically modified crops had increased 70-fold in the last 10 years to 114m hectares in 2007.

But fears of vandalism have forced many companies to shift their crop trials abroad. Last year, only one trial went ahead in Britain, a blight-resistant GM potato developed by the German company BASF. Two activists were arrested for damage to the trial site, which was later almost completely destroyed in a night raid.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/15/7099/

[derby378]

1. Ooooh, goody! Frankencorn!

Current US patent law is so funny. You can even patent lifeforms. I think 70% of the genes in your body are now legally owned by corporations, universities, etc.

It's so freakin' hilarious, I think I'm gonna cry now.

[nosmokes]

2. It's no easy thing to sniff 'em out on this side of the pond either!

Thanks for the post Sis.