THE UK has decided to embrace the commercial planting of genetically modified crops – or maybe not, depending on your interpretation of a government announcement on Tuesday.
The government’s provisional approval of one maize variety is a further weakening of Europe’s 1998 moratorium on commercial GM crops. But environment secretary Margaret Beckett says the UK opposes planting two other GM crops in Europe: weedkiller-resistant oilseed rape (canola) and sugar beet.
Strings have been attached to the approval for Bayer’s Chardon LL maize. The UK must first give the crop official status as a new variety – a decision that will have…
