DEPENDING on who you believe, it is either reassuring or deeply worrying. Companies and universities in the US violated the rules for conducting field trials of genetically modified crops on 115 occasions between 1990 and 2001, the US Department of Agriculture revealed last week. That means infractions occurred in 1.6 per cent of the 7402 trials.
The USDA says most cases were minor, such as planting crops the day before a permit came into effect, and that none harmed the environment or threatened the food supply. But critics say the number of infractions is large and disturbing. Some claim the…
