GM Seed Probably More Widespread Than Believed

by Andy Coghlan

"My guess is that it happens all the time," says Jeffrey Smith, vice president of marketing and communications at Genetic ID of Fairfield, Iowa. The company, which screens agricultural produce for GM material, found that more than half of 20 random samples of conventional seed taken from American distributors contained some GM seed.

The latest European furore began with the news that farmers throughout the continent have planted conventional oilseed rape containing traces of a sterile GM variety known as RT 73, which has not been approved for commercial planting in Europe. In Britain alone, 9000 hectares were sown with the adulterated seed in 1999, followed by 4700 hectares this spring.

In other European countries, including France and Sweden, ministers have considered ordering the destruction of affected crops. Opponents of GM crops accused governments of allowing the release of such crops before their environmental impact had been properly evaluated.

But Genetic ID told New Scientist that such contamination might be just the tip of the iceberg. It says that in tests done last year, but not widely publicized, 12 out of 20 random American consignments of conventional corn seed contained detectable traces of GM corn. Two of these contained almost 1 percent GM corn. Pioneer Hi-Bred, the largest supplier of both conventional and GM seeds in the U.S. acknowledged that low levels of mingling are inevitable. "Absolute zero purity is not achieved in any agricultural produce anywhere in the food chain," says Doyle Karr, a spokesman for the company.

Karr says Pioneer's conventional corn seeds exported to and grown in Europe could well contain traces of Bt corn, a GM variety that makes a toxin lethal to larval pests. But he adds that European governments have already approved this variety.

But other GM crops that have not been approved have probably been planted on European farms. In 1998, Britain imported a total of 491 000 tons of soybeans for sowing from the U.S. and Canada. If an estimated 1 percent were GM, roughly 5000 tons of GM soybeans were unwittingly imported. The Ministry of Agriculture does not break down statistics according to how much imported seed is used directly in food, and how much is planted on farms.

Many in the industry believe the solution lies in internationally agreed testing procedures and limits on contamination. Smith thinks a 1 percent limit should be set for accidental contamination. "You can't offer 0 percent, because it's not scientifically feasible or defensible," he says.

But such limits would raise another dilemma -- who shoulders the responsibility if the threshold is breached? Farmers think seed suppliers should carry the weight. "The seed suppliers need to guarantee what that seed is, and bear social and economic responsibility for that," says Gary Goldberg of the American Corn Growers Association.

But segregating crops won't be easy. Farmers in the U.S. send their seed to elevators, companies that pool seed from many farmers and then sell it on for distribution and export. A survey of almost 1200 elevators by Pioneer shows few are willing to test their deliveries and segregate GM from non-GM crops this autumn. However, Smith is confident that the companies are already taking the lessons on board. "My guess is that when harvest comes around, the percentage testing and segregating will be much higher."