Jun 7, 2006

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Field trial with transgenic barley partially destroyed:

“Planned and concerted attack”

On the Friday before Whitsun activists partially destroyed a field trial with genetically modified barley being conducted by the University of Giessen as part of safety research. As a result it will no longer be possible to conduct a full scientific evaluation of the trial. On Wednesday charges were brought on behalf of the university against those arrested during the attack.

Trial field. In April, 5000 genetically modified barley plants were planted on a plot measuring just under 10 m2 in the middle of an area of approximately 400 m2.

Several weeks before the attempted destruction appeals for “field liberation” over the Whitsun weekend had appeared on the Internet and on flyers. Hessian radio actually announced the planned action two days beforehand in its programme preview, so had clearly been informed of the exact date and was on site with a TV crew when a handful of activists stormed onto the field and began tearing up the plants. According to the police, six people were arrested and are being charged with trespass and damage to property.

The University of Giessen came out strongly against this attack on a scientific research project in a press release and instituted legal proceedings. The president of the University of Giessen, Stefan Hormuth, maintained that the campaign was not a spontaneous incursion by GM opponents, but “planned and concerted” attacks on an independent research project.

It is not yet possible to assess the extent of the damage. One area in of the trial field was destroyed in the attack. “But the main objectives of the research project will still be achieved,” says project director Karl-Heinz Kogel from the Institute of Plant Pathology. In view of the advance notices we were expecting an attack like this, said Kogel, which is why some of the plants had been harvested beforehand. Over the past few weeks he and his colleagues had focused on information, even facing up to their critics in public debates in an attempt to dispel fears and reservations.

Two different lines of genetically modified barley were involved in the release trial. One line contained a gene from a soil fungus which confers fungal resistance. The other line was developed to improve the brewing quality of the barley and its digestibility when used as animal fodder. In this case a gene was transferred from a soil bacterium. Karl-Heinz Kogel and his colleagues are examining whether the genetic modification also affects beneficial fungi which live in symbiosis with the plants.

More fields destroyed in Nürtingen.

On Whit Monday a trial field with GM maize was destroyed in Nürtingen (Baden-Württemberg). Nürtingen-Geislingen University is conducting a field trial in collaboration with the Bundessortenamt (Federal Office of Plant Varieties) on the one-hectare plot. Similar trials with GM plants have been conducted in Nürtingen for eleven years. Research has been considerably hampered by violent campaigns of destruction for five of those years, according to a university press release.