The British government has recently published a report that declared GM food crops basically safe to plant in the countryside. What is the truth about GM food crops and their enviromental impact on native species?

What is GM? I'd like to do some research, but I don't know what the initials stand for.

Sher ~ GM = Genetically Modified.

There is some evidence that genetic modifications can make it out into closely related species (which in theory would seem to have potential to harm the native species). I'll see what more I can dig up (or maybe let Sher have her fun ).

Here is an article on the report from Science Magazine's ScienceNow, it includes a link to the full report.

here is an interesting article mostly about a study with a less rosy outlook than the more recent one.

My personal opinion - they're probably no more of a threat than crops that have been genetically modified through selective breeding over the past few millenia, but I do think that they need to continue to be carefully studied.

I am finding a few articles.....

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i personally dont see much of a difference between genetically modifing and selective/cross breeding, except the time frame involved. they can both have bad effects on the environment if not controlled, but really, whats the difference when you eat them? (i personally think they should be grown indoors do minimize the chance of them taking over, but thats not really a feasible option now is it).

by the way, anyone heard about the purple carrots?
if you can dig up a site about them, id love to see it.

There is something quite amusing about all this. If the protestors were to be told that it was planned to create a bird that could not mate naturally most would be horrified at such an affront to nature, I suppose. So they obviously don't recognise the turkey they eat at Christmas or Thanksgiving which is, and has long been, that bird.

There is a lot of fuss made over genetically modified maize. The reality is that it is already grown in vast amounts; it bids to be, if not already, the dominant kind in the market. Well, suppose this is a crop that wipes out the original maize. Horror of horrors! Only one snag; there is no original maize !Nobody knows what the original plant looked like; maize has been selectively bred and cultivated for thousands of years so its ancestor, the wild original,is long gone.

The problem remains that saying that there is no evidence of harm is never going to be enough for some sensible people now.Who can foretell? We might have to wait a hundred years for the harm to be realised they can say. However the British Government allows GM crops but , rather sweetly, asks that any experiments be conducted within defined areas, as though that means nothing can 'escape'to mix with stuff growing quite far away!The government considers the risks to be really non-existent;' that is to say no different from other breeding we have now.We already have to change varieties of wheat, barley and so on that we grow here simply to stop the risks of monoculture; it would be sad indeed if we were simultaneously raising some organism fatal to that grain that was evolving to attack the only variety of it in the whole country !

So that's how it stands at present. I can see no risk but a number of advantages, speed of development being one.