UK: September 20, 1999

   LONDON - Environmentalists trying to halt the spread of genetically
   modified crops won a legal victory in Britain when the government said
   it would not contest a legal challenge to its licensing of crop
   trials.

   "Following legal advice, the government has decided not to contest the
   judicial review of proceedings instigated by Friends of the Earth
   (FoE) in respect of licensing of certain GM trials," Environment
   Minister Michael Meacher told a news conference.

   FoE, which had sought to stop the planting of a trial of GM rapeseed
   in Lincolnshire by biotechnology company AgrEvo, described the
   announcement as a humiliating climbdown.

   FoE policy director Tony Juniper said the government's GM trials
   programme was now in complete chaos. "It is a nonsense to pretend that
   this is a technical matter," he said.

   "This decision allowed a new crop to be grown, over four times the
   previous area, for twelve months rather than six," he said, accusing
   the government of bending the law to suit the biotechnology companies.

   Public opinion in Britain is firmly opposed to GM crops but Prime
   Minister Tony Blair's government has warned that the country's
   research lead will be jeopardised if trials are blocked.

   GOVERNMENT ACTED ILLEGALLY

   "We are accepting that on this point we acted illegally," Meacher
   said, adding: "The practical effect will be very little if anything."

   He described the issue as "a narrow technical matter" with no health,
   safety or environmental implications.

   FoE had sought a judicial review of a government decision to allow
   AgrEvo, a joint venture between Germany's Hoechst AG and Schering AG ,
   to switch one of its tests of GM rapeseed from spring to autumn
   planting.

   Meacher said the government accepted his officials had made an error
   because the law did not allow it to vary its consent and the company
   should have made a fresh application.

   "If a consent had been sought in the normal way as a fresh application
   I have no doubt it would have been granted," Meacher said. He said the
   government programme of farm-scale crop trials would continue.

   Meacher said the government would not require AgrEvo to end its trials
   because it had acted in good faith but it was possible a court could
   decide differently.

   "If an application is made to the courts, they will give a ruling," he
   said, adding that the government's programme of "absolutely vital"
   farm-scale crop trials will continue.

   Some 75 trials are planned over the next three years of spring
   rapeseed, autumn rapeseed and maize. The current trials are a dry run
   to check the methodology for the wider experiments. All the crops have
   to be destroyed after they are harvested.

   Meacher made clear he was hoping to extend a voluntary agreement with
   the industry under which commercial growing would be held up until the
   evidence from the farm scale trials was complete.

   "We are not in collusion with AgrEvo," he added.

   He said he was worried about the security of crop sites following
   well-publicised protests by environmentalists but was very reluctant
   to change policy and keep the sites secret.

   Story by John Morrison

   REUTERS NEWS SERVICE