Scientists: Europe Must Protect its Transgenic Crop Research

Researchers from the University of Leeds in United Kingdom expressed their concern over the European Union (EU) legislation that governs transgenic crop field trials. In a letter published by the journal Nature, Howard Atkinson and Peter Urwin criticized the legislation (Directive 2001/18/EC) as confused and contradictory, since it fails to distinguish a research or proof-of-concept trial from product development trials. Recently, a group of environmental activists destroyed Leeds University’s field trial of transgenic potato plants for nematode control. It was one of only two trials authorized in the UK for this year.

“A failure to distinguish a research trial from product development trials seems to have blinded activists to the published, broader aims of our work,” said Atkinson and Urwin. They said that if the EU governments cannot protect the trials they authorize, they should establish secure, vandal-proof national testing centers. They further commented that European governments must ensure that science in the universities can progress without coercion.

Read the article at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7198/full/453979c.html