CropGen

The warning comes as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace mobilise their activists to demonstrate against 70 or so farm-scale trial sites, to be announced shortly by the DETR.

"GM crops can help to reduce British agriculture's over-dependence on chemical herbicides and pesticides," said Dr Guy Poppy, an ecologist with the Institute of Arable Crops Research and a member of the CropGen panel.

"If we are not allowed to develop alternative agricultural practices, the effect on wildlife and the environment could be devastating," he said. "Whilst organic farming provides an alternative with its lower use of pesticides, it alone cannot provide a sustainable food supply for the UK population. GM crops hold one of the best hopes we have for not only preserving but enhancing diversity in the countryside."

Already there is evidence from last year's limited trials in the UK that GM sugar beet requires about 30% less herbicide compared with conventional sugar beet1. CropGen welcomes the proposed farmscale trials which will provide additional UK evidence on the effects, if any, of GM crops on bio-diversity.

"We have to expose the hypocrisy of organisations which call for more research into the safety of GM crops, as they destroy the very evidence they demand must be collected," said Professor Vivian Moses, chairman of the CropGen panel.

In a pro-forma press release issued to its activists around the country, Friends of the Earth instructs local spokespeople to say that "no-one wants to eat GM foods".

"A recent NOP poll* found that almost half the UK population would quite happily eat GM foods and ingredients," said Professor Moses. "So the evidence points in a different direction, but then evidence - like democracy - doesn't seem to figure very large on the campaigners' horizon."