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UK's `frankenfoods' plan leaked

Leaked letters show that Britain plans to back European Union rules which would give the green light to the commercial growing of genetically modified (GM) crops, The Sunday Times in London reported.

A leaked exchange of ministerial letters demonstrated that ministers will support moves in Brussels to ban GM-free zones and allow the "co-existence" of GM with conventional crops.

The correspondence, detailed in The Sunday Times, comes ahead of the publication next month of the long-awaited results of GM crop trials in Britain.

A Sept. 5 letter from Environ-ment Secretary Margaret Beckett to top government colleagues indicated that she will support EU proposals at a meeting of EU agriculture ministers at the end of the month.

"I am proposing that we broadly support the [European] Commission's guidelines as providing a reasonable basis to address the issue," Beckett wrote, according to The Sunday Times.

She attached a summary of the EU rules, which state that "no form of agriculture [conventional, organic, GM] should be excluded from the EU."

"Co-existence measures should be developed and implemented by member states because farming patterns across the EU are so diverse," the letter adds, according to the same source.

In reply, Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt stated: "I agree that our interests are best served by giving broad support to the Commission guidelines. We must also bear in mind the potential impact [on] EU-US relations."

A five-year moratorium by the EU on GM crops, which expires this year, has resulted in friction between the EU and US, where GM technology has been pioneered.
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