GM
Crop Farm Scale Evaluations:
Scientific Steering Committee Advice
FARM-SCALE EVALUATIONS OF GM CROPS: NEED FOR SITES IN SCOTLAND
Introduction
Sustained pressure from anti-GM protest activity has resulted in one of the farmers withdrawing his two sites from the FSE programme. These sites were situated in Scotland and their loss is particularly regrettable as it reduces the number of 'northern' sites in the programme. It has already been noted at the last Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) meeting (1 November 2000) that there is currently an imbalance between the UK distribution of spring oilseed rape and the representation of sites in Northern England. Scottish officials have asked the SSC whether the balance of the programme remains robust enough to be truly representative of conditions in Northern England and Scotland.
Advice from the Scientific Steering Committee
Officials in DETR have consulted the Scientific Steering Committee and their advice is set out below.
The farm-scale evaluations are addressing the hypothesis that there is no difference in the impact on the abundance and diversity of farmland wildlife between the type of herbicide regime used with the genetically modified herbicide tolerant crops and conventional herbicide regimes used on equivalent non-GM crops. The study design requires data from a total of 60-75 sites of each crop over the three-year period of the programme. The statistical power of the study derives from these independent data sets, each with its own built-in control. The criteria for the selection of sites laid down by the Scientific Steering Committee also require that the farms participating in the study represent a range of both high intensity and low intensity farming practices and are representative of the farming areas where the particular crops are grown. Such coverage is essential to ensure that the full range of habitats and wildlife likely to be exposed to the new herbicide regime is investigated and thus that the findings have generic relevance.
Spring oilseed rape is grown in England and Scotland with a little in Wales mainly in the border region. The distribution in each geographical region in recent years is shown in the table below. This indicates that to mirror this national distribution pattern in the FSE up to 10 spring oilseed rape sites would be expected in Scotland and 14 sites in Northern England over the course of the programme.
|
|
SPRING RAPE |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Region |
% grown in region |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Scotland |
13.3 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Northern England |
17.8 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Midlands England |
26.7 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Eastern England |
18.5 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
South east England |
15.5 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
South west England |
7.3 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Wales |
0.6 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The arrangements for the conduct of the trials are that the industry body, SCIMAC, identify farmers willing to participate in the evaluations and send details to the Research Consortium who check for the suitability of the farm and the site against the criteria set by the Scientific Steering Committee. The selected sites are then checked by the SSC before the trials proceed.
The geographical distribution of spring oilseed rape shows that a significant amount is grown in Scotland and Northern England. The SSC is aware of the current under representation of spring oilseed rape sites in Scotland and regrets the loss of the two sites. Despite this loss, the SSC advises that the programme will remain robust enough to be truly representative of conditions in Scotland as this year's programme still has three spring oilseed rape sites and a further site was included in the programme last year. In addition, the FSE programme currently includes four winter oilseed rape fields in Scotland. However, the SSC advises that any imbalances in location of FSE spring oilseed rape sites should be addressed as a matter of priority in the final year (2002) of the programme.
Secretariat to the Scientific Steering Committee, DETR
19 April 2001
Page published 10 October
2001;
Page last modified
10 August, 2002