GE research dives in EU

LONDON - The number of research projects into genetically engineered plants and animals has plunged in the wake of mounting public safety fears, according to a Europe survey.

In the four years since European Governments introduced a moratorium on commercial growing of GE plants, the number of applications for field trials of new varieties has dropped two-thirds, while 61 per cent of private companies and 39 per cent of research institutes and universities say they have cancelled schemes involving transgenic organisms.

"The longer the moratorium goes on in Europe, the more likely it is that biotech companies will move their research to countries outside the European Union," said Dr Klaus Menrad, of the Fraunhofer Institute in Karlsruhe, Germany, who wrote the report for the European Commission.

"The pipeline is still full of products that the companies want to plant or produce, and which they've invested their time and money in, but if they're delayed much longer, they will turn elsewhere."

Smaller biotech companies have already reverted to using conventional plant breeding techniques that do not have to go through stringent tests.

- INDEPENDENT