The following information has been compiled from various sources, including an ngin farm survey, but principally from public notices in local newspapers and the register of GMO release applications which is held by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). You can ring the DETR Biotechnology section on 0171 890 5275 (if it's an enquiry specific to farmscale trials then ask for Dr Nick Brickle) to ask for paper copies of registers including the register of currently active sites or write to the Biotechnology Unit, Floor 3/G, DETR, Ashdown House, 123 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6DE.  There is also a regional Public Register which can be viewed at: Kingfisher House, Goldhay Way, Orton Goldhay, Peterborough PE2 5ZR (tel. 01733 464483)

Warning: getting up to date information in a readily accessible form is often very difficult. Be persistent. You have a right to know what is going on in the countryside around you.
 

Farm-scale trials SPRING 2000 Farm-scale trials WINTER  2000 - 2001   The number of sites in Norfolk Concerns about the trials Farm-scale trials ***GMO site details*** GM Companies based in Norfolk Other GM companies running trials in Norfolk STOP THE CROP!

The number of sites in Norfolk

At present no GMO crops are being grown commercially in the UK so the releases detailed below are at trial sites. There are several hundred trial sites in the UK.  Environment Minister, Michael Meacher told the House of Commons in April 1999 that since 1993 "genetically modified crops have been grown on approximately 373 individual test sites, some at the same research establishments or farms. In the coming growing season [ie '99], we have received notifications that genetically modified crops will be grown at 65 different sites." About half the GMO releases for the UK have been happening in East Anglia.

In 1998 there were 44 trials at about a dozen sites in Norfolk. By early May 1999 16 trials were planned at about half that number of sites - a significant reduction which according to the Eastern Daily Press reflects an increasing disenchantment with GMOs among Norfolk's farmers: "Genetically modified food firms are facing a crisis of confidence as Norfolk's farmers turn their backs on them" (6th May 1999) Richard Powell of Novartis Seeds admitted in Farmers Weekly that it was getting harder to rent land for trials because of the controversy.

Norfolk has also had the highest number of deliberate releases on a single site in the UK. These have taken place at the Experimental Farm of AgrEvo at  East Winch. Norfolk also had the second highest number of deliberate releases on a single privately owned site - at Crown Point Farms - but the latter withdrew from GM trials because of the public disquiet and protests over GMOs.

Concerns about the trials

Norfolk County Council has raised its concerns with the government about the potentially damaging transfer from GM crops into the Norfolk countryside. The government, however, seems to be ignoring such concerns and pressing ahead with large farm scale trials. Jim Shrimplin, joint chairman of the county council’s countryside subcommittee has said, “We have been foremost in matters of conservation and to ignore this issue could be disastrous and something we could regret for all time.”

Points of concerns about environmental damage:

A. Cross pollination with related food plants and wild and weedy relatives. For example, in the case of sugar beet a Department of the Environment report has commented, “Sugar beet is a crop which has a long history of hybridisation and gene exchange with wild beet." It goes on, "Even without hybridisation the transgene [ie an inserted gene in a GM crop] may be  able to persist in weed beets derived from bolters or volunteers. Thus escape of the transgene to a crop weed, and perhaps to a lesser extent to a weed of disturbed habitats, is entirely plausible."  Sugar beet is a crop renowned for bolters which pollinate early, often bolting in as short a period as 10 days, making checking for bolters very difficult particularly in larger scale trials.  Each adult flowering plant can have as many as 20,000 flowers producing a great amount of pollen, so even in a couple of days a bolting plant can produce significant pollen which could spread, via bees and air movement, ten or more kilometers. If one farmer or gardener in that range allows a single related plant (eg sugar beet, beetroot, spinach beet, chard or fodder beet) to set seed after it has been cross-pollinated by a bolter from the GM crop, then the genetic material will have escaped. Some crops like oilseed rape have an even greater number of relatives and, not being biennial like sugar beet, will inevitably produce pollen and on a large scale within the period of the trial.  Cross-polination of GM rape plants and wild turnips has already been observed in the UK - in some cases the transgenic herbicide resistance had been passed on.

B.  Horizontal gene transfer to other organisms, including plants, via soil micro-organisms is a problem too little understood for GM trials to proceed safely.  It is impossible to know the precise frequencies for such horizontal gene transfer under natural conditions as very few actual studies have been carried out. Nor has horizontal gene transfer been seriously monitored in GM field trials or releases. ngin believes that horizontal gene flow should have been thoroughly investigated at the stage when genetically engineered plants were being developed in greenhouses. Current field trials still do not include tests for this risk.  However, in research published in the journal:  FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY, 1999, Vol.28, No.3, pp.261-272 under the title: 'Monitoring field releases of genetically modified sugar beets for persistence of transgenic plant DNA and horizontal gene transfer', Gebhard and Smalla report how when field releases of transgenic sugar beet plants were accompanied by a study of horizontal gene transfer, the persistence of transgenic DNA in soil and in bacteria were both shown to occur under field conditions. Free transgenic DNA was detected. See also a report by Dr Mae-wan Ho on field trials and gene transfer

C.  The spread of transgenic material by other means. Genetic material can be spread into the wider enviroment via a variety of means. Broken off pieces of plant material can be moved by wild mammals such as rabbits or mice, or by birds. Such plant litter can often regenerate into viable plants. Transgenic DNA has also been shown to persist in plant litter for considerable periods - upto 2 years, allowing horizontal gene transfer  (see point B above) to take place away from the trial area. Seeds can also be moved. Sugar beet seed, for example, is a particular favourite of crows and is still viable after 12-18 hours in a bird's digestive tract.

D.  Damage to wildlife: the whole point of herbicides like Monsanto's Roundup is to kill more wildlife. Advertised in North America under the slogan, "No Mercy! No Pity! No weeds!", Roundup used in combination with GM herbicide-tolerant crops is intended to sterilise fields of every bit of plant life except for the Roundup Ready crop. As a result its use inevitably reduces the food and habitat available to wildlife. It thus inevitably reduces the population of many animals.  This is why English Nature and the RSPB, in particular, are so concerned about the impact of herbicide-tolerant crops on farmland wildlife much of which has already been pushed to the edge of extinction by intensive agriculture.  The effect of herbicide tolerant crops in this regard does not require research. Their impact is self-proclaimed:  "No Mercy! No Pity! No Weeds!" equals "No Mercy! No Pity! No Wildlife!" The Director General of the UK's Wildlife Trusts, Simon Lyster, has said, "No plants, no insects, no birds. Genetically engineered crops could turn our agricultural land into a biological desert." Roundup has also been reported to be directly toxic to spiders, mites, carabid and coccinellid beetles and to earthworms, as well as to aquatic organisms, including fish. 

E. Damage to wildlife:insect resistant crops (eg those using the Bt toxin) can harm beneficial insects, like ladybirds and lacewings, and pollinators as well as pests.  English Nature and the RSPB have again emphasised the adverse implications for wildlife.  There are also well-grounded concerns about the rapid build up of pest-resistance.  A leading British geneticist, Steve Jones,  has posed the question of what would happen if, for instance, a gene that conferred resistance against insects 'escaped'? He says, "Suddenly we have no insects. With no insects you have no ecology, no ecosystem, no pollinators, no flowers, God knows what. Now this probably will not happen. But it certainly might... we don't seem to be considering the possibility that evolution may take advantage of those genes, as it has done previously, in ways that we don't like." Crop trials, he says, are not rigorous enough in safety terms to protect from such a possibility.  At an international meeting of entomologists (scientists who study insects) in Basel Switzerland in March 1999, experts warned that in the case of genetically engineered (GE) Bt crops, they are exuding 10-20 times the amount of toxins contained in conventional (non-GE) Bt sprays, and are harming beneficial insects (such as ladybugs/ladybirds and lacewings) and soil microorganisms, and could well be harming insect-eating bird populations. Yet, Bt crops are being widely trialled in the UK.

F. The above concerns about environmental damage are exacerbated by the record of complacent regulation, widescale violations and poor policing of GM trials.  A report in mid-December 1998 by the Health and Safety Executive, who “police” the trials, showed that 1 in 5 GM crop trials that the Health and Safety Executive  had managed to monitor were breaking the regulations. Most GM sites are not even being monitored! Last year only just over one third of licensed sites were even inspected.  In fact, the HSE only has one full time inspector to cover hundreds of trials across the UK. To date there has only been one prosecution (Monsanto, 17th February 1999). Baroness Young, the head of English Nature, has said, "It is not being properly regulated or monitored. There is a hole in the regulatory system."

For more on the hazards and difficulties of growing GM crops experimentally and commercially see the various news pages on the ngin website, especially Farming News. For a press artilce on ngin's concerns about the GM crop trials: Why a Norwich group is fighting GM crops

“Even if one accepts the claims of the doom-mongers with a healthy degree of scepticism, there still must be risks. It must make sense to continue extensive research, but to confine it to the laboratory and not allow the release of genetically modified material into the environment until we know a great deal more about the potential drawbacks." - Andrew Davis, a Regional Director of the Country Landowners Association (CLA)

One of the UK’s most eminent scientists and a leading geneticist, Professor Steve Jones, has recently said he does not think GM field trials are "really rigorous enough" in terms of safety. He points out, "A tiny accident, one gene leaking out, can have massive consequences" and Professor Jones says he is haunted by the prospect. See BBC News report

^{Farm-scale trials}
for an excellent briefing on why you should be concerned about farmscale trials - click here

Farm-scale trials, as opposed to smaller scale trials (largest 2 hectares) began in spring 1999.  The environmental concerns listed above are obviously intensified in the case of farm-scale trials.  The UK's biggest farming organisation, the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS), which farms 80,000 acres across the UK, has pulled out of GM trials because it  believes the design of this type of trial will give rise to the very concerns about environmental damage that it is designed to research. CWS spokesman Bill Shannon said: "Our discussions with various parties led us to conclude that the design of this year's trials would do little to allay current environmental and consumer concerns." English Nature has also criticised the design of the trials. There are also concerns about the impartiality (or otherwise!) of those involved in running these trials - click here. Click here for details of Norfolk farm-scale trials.  GeneWatch UK has produced a very useful series of fact sheets on the UK farm scale trials available at http://www.genewatch.org/UKtrials.htm

GMO site details: who, where and what?
for farmscale trial details in Norfolk and suffolk in 2000 - click here

Below you will find details of release site location, a reference number for the application to ACRE (the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment - the regulators), and the type of crop that has been genetically modified (eg sugar beet). The number at the beginning of the ACRE reference (eg '96') indicates the year a license was granted. Dates of a particular trial are only given where the trial is thought to still be continuing. Similarly, the applicant is only given where the trial is not at the company site.  We hope to provide ordinance survey grid references for all these sites soon and additional data on the form of the modification and the purpose and size of the trial.

Click here for details of year 2000 Norfolk farm-scale trials

ngin cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information given, as information on the trials is often scanty, inaccurate and even contradictory, and so any information should be carefully checked, particularly against the information made available by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions(DETR)

ADAS (Agricultural Development and Advisory Service) Terrington, Terrington St Clement (5 miles west of Kings Lynn)
Tel: 01553 828621
94/R05/02 spring oilseed rape
94/R15/01 oilseed rape
94/R05/04 tobacco

95/R15/15 - oilseed rape - site unknown
Morley Research Centre, The Old Rectory, Morley St. Botolph, Wymondham, NR18 9DB Tel: 01953 605511  '99!
94/R20/02 - oilseed rape (NIAB) - currently active (March 99)
95/R05/06 - oilseed rape
96/R21/04 - (Hilleshog)  2ha - Grid reference TM 063 997 - listed as currently active '99!
96/R22/08 - (Monsanto) - Grid reference TG 06 00 - listed as currently active '99! decontaminated by protesters
97/R19/13 - (AgrEvo) Grid reference TG 063 997 - listed as currently active '99!/2000 decontaminated by protesters
97/R19/18 - (AgrEvo) Grid reference TM 06 99 - listed as currently active '99!
97/R24/02 - (Pioneer Genetique) Grid reference TM 063 994
98/R20/02 - oilseed rape (IACR) 6-10ha (very large!)Grid reference TM 065 001 '99!
98/R20/02 - oilseed rape (NIAB) Grid reference TM 065 001 2000!
98/R20/03 - oilseed rape (IACR) 160 m Grid reference TM 063 997 awaiting consent  '99!
98/R20/03 - oilseed rape (IACR) Grid reference TG 065 002 2000!
98/R30/03 - (CPB Twyford Ltd) 160m Grid reference TM 063 997 '99! partially decontaminated by protesters - Twyford's stopping GMOs
98/R15/24 - oilseed rape (Plant Genetic Systems - PGS) 400 Grid reference TM 063 997 '99! partially decontaminated by protesters
98/R22/12 - sugar beet (Monsanto) Grid reference TM 055 995
99/R21/06 - sugar beet (Novartis) Grid reference TM 04 97 2000! decontaminated by protesters?
99/ R32/01 - sugar/fodder beet (IACR) Grid reference TM 062 996 decontaminated by protesters'99!/2000
00/ R33/02 - (Aventis - formerly AgrEvo) Grid reference TM 04 97 2000! decontaminated by protesters?
00/R13/10 - (Advanta)   Grid reference TM 04 97 2000! decontaminated?
Wood Farm, Morley Research Station, Attleborough
95/R22/01  sugar beet  (Monsanto)
95/R22/02  sugar beet  (Monsanto)
96/R22/04  sugar beet  (Monsanto)
98/R22/11  sugar beet  (Monsanto) field 2  March to May in the Spring, and September to January of the following year, 1998 to 2003
98/R22/12   sugar beet  (Monsanto) field 2  March to May in the Spring, and September to January of the following year, 1998 to 2003.
                                                                               Additional release during August to October (terminated Feb-April) and March to April
                                                                               terminated July/August).

GMO trial companies with base in Norfolk

Hoechst UK Ltd, Agricultural Division, East Winch Hall, East Winch, King's Lynn PE32 1HN
See AgrEvo below

AgrEvo UK Crop Protection Ltd, East Winch Hall, East Winch, King's Lynn, Norfolk PE32 1HN  Tel: 01553 841581
*CLOSED 24th December 1999* see contaminated land for sale?
AgrEvo is a joint venture of two German chemical concerns, Schering AG and Hoechst AG, hence the same address as above. AgeEvo has developed a GM oilseed rape that is tolerant of the herbicide glufosinate-ammonium. It is hoping this will be the first GM crop to be grown commercially in the UK. The company also has a herbicide-resistant GM maize, which is grown in the US and Canada, and oilseed rape grown in Canada.
See Aventis below

Aventis Crop Science UK Ltd, Fyfield Road, Ongar, Essex CM5 0HW   Tel: 01277 301301
Aventis is a new joint venture bringing together AgrEvo and Rhone Poulenc - for more on the UK's public enemy no. 1

John Innes Centre (JIC), Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich NR4 7UH  Tel: 01603 452571
The JIC and Sainsbury Laboratory are funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Chairman: Peter Doyle, Executive Director of Zeneca), Lord Sainsbury's trust The Gatsby Foundation, and corporations like Zeneca, DuPont, Monsanto, Novartis, AgrEvo etc, and by the EU. It claims to be independent of industry! For more on the John Innes Centre

Novartis Seeds Ltd, Brooke Lodge, Brooke, Norwich, NR15 1JG  Tel:01508 550688
and at Station Road, Docking, Norfolk, PE31 8LY  Tel: 01485 518631
See Hilleshog below
Novartis Seeds is part of Novartis which was formed in 1996 by the merger of Swiss chemical/pharmaceutical companies Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy. It's the world's largest biotech company and the second largest seed firm (Novartis also has a big pharmaceutical sector).  Novartis's controversial GM maize that is toxic to the European corn borer pest and also resistant to the company's herbicide, and which contains an antibiotic resistance gene is going into products on sale in UK supermarkets. It has been trying to develop GM sugar beet tolerant to the herbicide Roundup but British Sugar (the sole UK refiner) has stated it will not refine GM sugar beet for the foreseeable future.

Hilleshog (UK) Ltd, Brooke Lodge, Brooke, Norwich NR15 1JG
Hilleshog was taken over by Novartis Seeds hence the same address

Zeneca Seeds UK Limited, Station Road, Docking, King's Lynn PE31 8LS
Zeneca Seeds is part of Zeneca, previously part of ICl, the British chemical company behind the GM tomato puree on sale in Safeways. The GM tomatoes used in this are currently grown in the US, but the company intends to grow the crop in Spain or Italy by the year 2000, if granted regulatory approval. The company says its next big launch will be GM bananas. Zeneca has conducted limited field trials of GM maize, oilseed rape and sunflower in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, and is now conducting trials on potatoes. It is also investing £50m in the John Innes Centre (JIC) in the hope of developing a GM wheat.
 

Other GMO trial companies

Monsanto, Agricultural Sector, Maris Lane, Trumpington, Cambridge  Tel:0800 0920401
Monsanto is the US company behind the controversial GM soya resistant to the company's herbicide, Roundup, and now in many foods on our supermarket shelves. The company has also developed insect-resistant GM potatoes, maize and cotton, which are all grown in the US. In the UK it has been trying to develop a GM beet but British Sugar (the sole UK refiner) has stated it will not refine GM sugar beet for the foreseeable future. Monsanto is the world's second biggest seed company and the third largest in agrochemicals. Roundup is the world's biggest-selling weedkiller. Its veterinary-medicines include the genetically engineered milk-boosting hormone for cattle rBGH, also known as bovine somatotropin (BST), which it hopes to gain approval for in Europe.

Plant Genetic Systems (PGS), J. Plateaustraat 22, B-9000, Gent, Belgium

National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, CB3 0LE (the UK's centre of seed certification)

Institute of Arable Crop Research (IACR), Brooms Barn, Highham, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP28 6NP

Pioneer Genetique SARL Chemin de l’Enseigure BP 6 31840 Aussonne FRANCE

CPB Twyford Ltd., Church Street, Thriplow, nr Royston, Herts - announced in May '99 stopping GMOs!

Other major companies developing GM crops include Pioneer HiBred, Du Pont and Dow Chemicals, linked to Rhone-Poulenc, and Calgene, but none of these companies have been involved in Norfolk field trials to date.