U.K. moratorium on biotech crops urged

Journal or Publishing Institution: Chemical Engineering News

Study: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cen-v077n021.p007a

Author(s): Hileman, B.

Article Type: Report

Record ID: 1018

Abstract: The British Medical Association (BMA) has called for a moratorium on the commercial planting of genetically modified (GM) crops until scientists agree on their long-term environmental effects. “Once the GM genie is out of the bottle, the impact on the environment is likely to be irreversible,” says Sir William Asscher, chairman of BMA’s Board of Science & Education. “That is why the precautionary principle is so particularly important on this issue.” About 112,000 physicians, or 80% of the doctors in the U.K., belong to BMA. The BMA report cites three possible dangers of genetically modified crops and food. First, antibiotic-resistant marker genes, which have been inserted into most such crops, could be transferred to microbes in human or animal guts and result in antibiotic-resistant microbes. Second, modified crops could cross-pollinate with wild species and create superweeds. This is more likely to happen in the U.K. than in the U.S., the group says, because farm fields …

Citation: Hileman, B., 1999. UK moratorium on biotech crops. Chemical Engineering News, 7, May 24.