Warwickshire Wildlife Trust has added its voice to the campaign against the GM crop trials at Wolston near Coventry.

The Trust has written to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food requesting that the trial be abandoned immediately. The Brandon Marsh based conservation group claim, as do many others, that the trial planting so close to Ryton Organic Gardens, one of the country's main organic research centres, is totally inappropriate.

The Trust supports organic farming because it is more beneficial to wildlife than current standard agricultural practices.

Andrew Thompson, the Trust's Conservation Manager, said:

"The location of the proposed trial is absolutely wrong. The Trust's policy on GM crop trials does not seek to preclude scientific research, but identifies the real risks that field scale trials create.

"Two basic principles need to be adhered to which are that trials must not compromise organic farming and local opinion needs to be respected. On both counts this trial is wrong."

He added:

"Wherever possible trials should be limited to laboratory research until it can be shown that there are definitely no threats to wildlife from each particular modification.

"When field scale trials are carried out very detailed monitoring, open to public scrutiny, needs to be undertaken."

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