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7-Business: Is agronomic research more than simply GE crops?

                                  PART I
-------------------------------- GENET-news -------------------------------

TITLE:  Work to begin on GBP 25m crop centre
SOURCE: Evening News, UK, by Sam Halstead
        http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=761942004
DATE:   3 Jul 2004 

------------------- archive: http://www.genet-info.org/ -------------------


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   "Research into genetically modified crops in Britain is set to
    collapse, following the withdrawal of the last major biotech company,
    pro-GM scientists, the industry and environmentalists have all told
    The Independent on Sunday."
                                          The Independent, 4 Jul 2004
---------------------------------------------------------------------------


Work to begin on GBP 25m crop centre

- HQ to move to Gogarbank Farm
- GM crop trials to be monitored
- Contractors yet to be appointed

WORK is set to start on a GBP25 million research centre from where future
GM crop trials in Scotland will be monitored.

Scientists at the Edinburgh-based Scottish Agricultural Science Agency
(SASA) study everything from pesticides to developing new types of crops.

The agency is about to move its headquarters from East Craigs to
Gogarbank Farm on the outskirts of the city.

The first step in the massive project is expected to take place within
weeks, with the appointment of a construction firm to build the new
laboratories and offices.

The move would pave the way for building work to start at Gogarbank Farm
before the end of the year.

The farm, in countryside on the west side of the city between the M8
motorway and the main Edinburgh-Glasgow railway line, is currently used
by the SASA for field trials.

Once work is complete, it will form the backbone of the Scottish
Executive agency's specialist research work. SASA's wide-ranging duties
include carrying out checks on GM trials.

Balfour Beatty and Sir Robert McAlpine are believed to be the two
construction companies bidding for the GBP25m contract to build the
complex, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2005.

Edinburgh City Council gave the scheme the go-ahead in February despite
concern about the increase in traffic visiting the site and the storage
and use of chemicals at the farm.

The move gained the council's blessing after the agency warned it might
quit the Capital unless it could move its labs, glasshouses and support
services to the site on Edinburgh's green belt.

The new complex will feature a lecture theatre, staff cafe, two
conference rooms, lab wings for seeds and plants chemistry, pests and
pathogens.

The central spine of the main building will include four sets of labs on
either side at right angles. There will also be space for a small staff
fitness suite, including changing and showering facilities, while glass
houses and farm buildings will occupy the north of the site.

SASA had been based at East Craigs since 1926, but agency chiefs believe
a move west was logical when it became necessary to modernise its
premises. It already has scores of trial plots of grass and clover for
carrying out studies at Gogarbank Farm.

Scientists at the agency look at the genetics of plant breeding and how
new varieties fit in with farming systems and their environmental impact.
They also analyse the quality of seeds and new crop varieties, as well as
developing new and more sensitive tests for pests and diseases.

The experts preserve and maintain a wide range of historic, heritage and
other varieties of potatoes, cereals and peas, and monitor the pesticide
load in diets and the pattern of pesticides use.

An SASA spokesman said: "Relocation to Gogarbank Farm, where SASA's field
trialling work takes place, will eliminate the need for inter-site
travel, will provide modern facilities to replace the ageing buildings at
East Craigs, and will allow for full integration of the agency's
laboratory, glasshouse and field operations."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive, which will appoint the
contractors for the project, said: "

The move to Gogarbank Farm will help to improve the efficiency and
effectiveness of that work through the use of improved facilities, better
sharing of information and improved patterns of working."

Officials told the city's planning committee in 2002, when it was
considering outline plans for the scheme, that although there was a
presumption against development in the green belt, the proposal for a
national agricultural centre base was considered exceptional.

Meanwhile, the organisation's ageing facilities at Craigs Road, East
Craigs, will be bulldozed to make way for new housing on the site.

Councillor Jenny Dawe, whose ward includes the existing SASA site,
pledged to make sure new housing on the land was "appropriate".


                                  PART II
-------------------------------- GENET-news -------------------------------

TITLE:  GM research collapses in UK as last big firm quits
SOURCE: The Independent, UK, by Geoffrey Lean
        http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=537865
DATE:   4 Jul 2004 

------------------- archive: http://www.genet-info.org/ -------------------


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   "WORK is set to start on a GBP25 million research centre from where
    future GM crop trials in Scotland will be monitored. Scientists at 
    the Edinburgh-based Scottish Agricultural Science Agency (SASA)
    study everything from pesticides to developing new types of crops."
                                          Evening News, 3 Jul 2004
---------------------------------------------------------------------------


GM research collapses in UK as last big firm quits

Research into genetically modified crops in Britain is set to collapse,
following the withdrawal of the last major biotech company, pro-GM
scientists, the industry and environmentalists have all told The
Independent on Sunday.

Last week Syngenta, the only big firm still working on genetically
modified agriculture in the UK, announced it was moving all its
operations to the United States.

The Anglo-Swiss company will stop all GM research at its site in
Berkshire and move it to North Carolina, with a loss of 130 jobs.

Yesterday leaders of both sides of the debate predicted that the
development of GM crops in Britain was doomed for the foreseeable future.
They said university research is increasingly financed by businesses, and
doubted the Government would continue to plough public money into
research that had no application in Britain.

Professor Anthony Trewavas, the Professor of Plant Biochemistry at
Edinburgh University, told The Independent on Sunday: "This is a sad
retreat. Work in universities will probably cease as well."

He said it would have "long-term" effects because "once teams are
dispersed it takes a long time to get things back together again".

Professor Michael Wilson, Professor of Plant Biology at Warwick
University and a member of the government-appointed GM science panel,
said: "I am afraid that the Luddites have effectively won." He blamed the
media and "ego-tripping and propagandising" environmentalists.

The GM industry's Agriculture and Biotechnology Council said research in
the UK was becoming more difficult because of a lack of government support.

But Lord Melchett, Policy Director of the Soil Association, said that the
technology had been rejected because of "deep public unease".

Pete Riley, of the Five Year Freeze, an anti-GM pressure group, said: "If
you produce things that people do not want to buy you cannot expect to
stay in business long." He urged the Government to provide more finance
to university researchers so that they were less dependent on commercial
funding.




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