subject: Bees, Honey, and Genetically Modified Crops

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Bees, Honey, and Genetically Modified Crops

 

 

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/bees_honey_gm_crops.html

 

Bees are extremely important to the pollination of UK crops,

particularly oilseed rape and beans. In the UK there are estimated

to be between 100,000 and 300,000 hives (see footnote 1), working

out at one hive per square kilometre. A hive may contain up to

50,000 bees and individual bees may visit up to 100 flowers on each

trip out from the hive. The value of honey bees' services as

pollinators in the European Union has been estimated at around £3

billion per year.

 

 

Genetically modified (GM) crops are very near to being grown

commercially. GM maize and oilseed rape varieties are in the last

stages of the regulatory procedure which will allow them to be grown

anywhere in the UK.

 

A farming industry organisation, the Supply Chain Initiative on

Modified Agricultural Crops (SCIMAC) has

developed guidelines for farmers growing GM crops. But there are no

provisions within these for protecting beehives from contamination

with GM pollen, or even to inform beekeepers if GM crops are to be

grown in their area.

 

In 1999 the Government started a series of 'farm-scale trials' of GM

herbicide-tolerant crops. Each of these GM crop trials covers ten

hectares (25 acres) and it is planned to have at least 25 sites for

each GM crop involved - winter and spring oilseed rape, maize and

sugar beet.

 

These trials are meant to examine the environmental

effects of GM crops, but they have not been designed to prevent

pollen escaping from the test sites or to protect nearby beekeepers

from contamination of their honey.

 

 

 

GM Crops

 

Oilseed rape is an extremely important crop for bees and beekeepers.

It is the crop to which commercial hives are most often moved (see

footnote 3), and pollination contracts for oilseed rape provide an

important source of income to many beekeepers.

 

It is very attractive to bees, and has 'sticky' pollen, which the

bees can get covered in.

Most GM oilseed rape in the UK has been engineered to resist

herbicides.

 

GM maize is also close to commercial production and being growing at

farm-scale trials.

 

Bees collect pollen for food and in the US it has

been found that pollen from maize fields can make up to 20 per cent

of the total collected by bees from nearby hives.

 

Is GM Honey safe?

 

Genetic engineering is imprecise and unpredictable. Genes are

inserted from organisms which have never been eaten as food, and so

new proteins are introduced into the human and animal food chains.

 

There is concern that these could cause allergic reactions or other

health effects.

 

A study by Government researchers found that there are between

20,000 and 80,000 pollen grains in a portion (10g) of shop-bought

honey.

 

There are already cases of people who are

allergic to honey, and this has been linked to pollen in the honey

..

 

The novel proteins or toxins produced by GM crops

may also be in the pollen they produce. This means that honey

containing GM pollen could pose a potential health risk.

 

The researchers who studied this problem concluded that if GM pollen

contained novel toxins or proteins it " could pose problems, not only

to man who consumes honey as a food, but also to bee populations

which rely on pollen as the sole source of protein " .

 

 

As well as this, research into honey has found that bees can pass

proteins from nectar unchanged into honey.

 

If GM crops produce novel proteins or toxins in the nectar as well,

this

may further threaten the safety of honey produced from GM crops.

 

 

GM plants may also contain genes which provide resistance to

commonly used antibiotics such as ampicillin.

 

There is concern that these could be passed on to the bacteria that

live in humans and animals.

 

DNA from pollen has been found to be able to survive in

honey for seven weeks (see footnote 9). It may be that this could be

a route for such gene transfer.

 

 

In spite of the risks, there has been almost no safety testing of GM

pollen, either for humans or for bees.

 

Even the food safety tests of GM crops have been limited to short-

term tests on animals. The

Government's advisors on the safety of GM foods rely on results of

tests conducted by the GM companies themselves.

 

Recently Dr Andrew Chesson, a leading food scientist from the Rowett

Research

Institute, expressed concern that current safety tests may be

insufficient to detect new, unexpected chemicals in GM foods.

 

Although the Government is conducting its own

independent research into GM food safety, the results will not be

ready until 2004.

 

Bees and gene pollution

 

Honey bees commonly forage up to two km from the hive, but oilseed

rape fields are such an attractive source of nectar that bees may

travel at least five km to get to them.

 

In a recent study, a bee hive was placed 800 m from a field of GM

oilseed rape.

 

When the oilseed rape was in flower, it made up 70% of the

pollen that the bees carried back to the hive.

 

One bee returning to the hive had 60,000 oilseed rape pollen grains

stuck to its body .

 

As the bees brush past each other in the hive any GM pollen is

spread throughout the colony and taken out again by

other bees.

 

 

In summer 1999, Friends of the Earth commissioned research to study

this issue. The researchers put pollen samplers on the entrances to

beehives around a ten hectare farm scale test site of GM oilseed

rape.

 

The pollen samplers measured how much pollen the bees were

carrying into the hive. The bee hives were 150m, 2.5 km and 4.5 km

away from the test site.

 

GM pollen was found in all the samples from the different beehives,

including the one furthest away. The results

show that even if a beehive is 4.5 km from a field of GM oilseed

rape, the honey can still become contaminated with GM pollen. This

has serious implications for all beekeepers.

 

 

Not only are bee hives near to GM oilseed rape fields likely to

become contaminated with GM pollen, but the bees may spread GM

pollen to non-GM crops several miles away.

 

It is likely that in the future farmers will be growing oilseed rape

for the 'GM-free'

market.

 

In such cases, contamination of the crop could cause

financial loss to the farmer. At the moment it is unclear who would

be held liable for this, and whether the beekeeper might be held

responsible as well as the farmer who grows the GM crop.

 

Impact on Beekeepers

 

At the moment, companies or farmers planting GM crops do not have to

consult with neighbouring beekeepers, or even tell them that there

is a GM crop nearby.

 

Even if the beekeeper finds out that there is a

GM crop nearby, it is up to them to test their honey for

contamination.

 

Because of this, it is very possible that beekeepers

have already unwittingly sold GM honey to the public.

 

The former Food Safety Minister Jeff Rooker stated that honey

containing GM pollen would have to be labelled before being sold .

 

But this only applies to honey containing pollen

from GM crops which have gained permission to be sold as food. GM

test sites, including at present the farm-scale trials of GM oilseed

rape, grow GM crops which have not yet got such permission.

 

In these cases, the law states that any GM material from them cannot

be sold in food, including GM pollen.

 

This means that if honey becomes

contaminated with pollen from a test site or the farm-scale trials

it could be illegal to sell it.

 

As it stands, GM crops pose a serious threat to beekeepers and honey

production in the UK. Honey contaminated with GM pollen will either

have to be disposed of safely or sold as a GM product.

 

Either of these options is likely to cause financial harm to

beekeepers.

 

Despite this, there is no system to ensure that beekeepers are

consulted about GM crops growing nearby nor are there any provisions

for compensation in the event of financial losses which might result.

 

 

Impact on Wild Bees

 

Wild bees are vital for the survival of many of our wild plants, as

well as being important for crops. Some species of wild plants are

dependent on wild bees for their pollination and survival.

 

Several species of bumblebees and solitary bees are also important

pollinators for food crops.

 

 

Bumblebees are very important in the UK, as they fly around at lower

temperatures and in worse weather than honeybees. In addition,

bumblebees are best able to pollinate some wild flowers, such as

foxgloves.

 

Natural populations of bumblebees are in decline in the

UK and across the EU. Solitary bees are bees that live on their own,

rather than in hives or nests.

 

There are several hundred species

across Europe, but very little is known about them apart from the

fact that, like bumblebees, they are in decline.

 

The decline of bumblebees and solitary bee populations has been

linked to modern intensive farming.

 

The widespread use of herbicides and the increased intensity of

farming has removed

the habitats that wild bees make nests in, and reduced the numbers

of wild plants which they use for food. There is concern that the

introduction of GM herbicide tolerant crops, such as oilseed rape,

will reduce still further the diversity and number of wild plants

found in UK farmland.

 

Such concerns have been expressed by English

Nature, the Government's own wildlife advisor, as well as the Royal

Society for the Protection of Birds and the Wildlife Trusts. The

widespread use of GM herbicide-tolerant crops is likely to threaten

further wild bee populations.

 

 

Summary

 

It is clear that growing GM crops in the UK will pose a serious

threat to beekeepers and honey production in the UK.

 

Issues around food safety, liability, the cost to beekeepers and the

threat to

wild bee populations have yet to be resolved. Vital questions need

to be answered and there needs to be a full public debate on the

acceptable uses of genetic engineering.

 

 

Friends of the Earth (FOE) is opposed to the untested introduction

of GM crops and foods in the UK. We are campaigning against outdoor

testing of GM crops, including the farm scale trials.

 

FOE is calling for a full public debate on the future of farming and

how our food

is produced. A moratorium, or freeze, on the commercial production

and importation of GM food and crops is now urgently required.

 

Emily Diamand

 

 

The Real Food Campaign

 

Friends of the Earth

26-28, Underwood Street

LONDON

N1 7JQ

 

Tel 020 7490 1555

Fax 020 7490 0881

 

Email - info

Website - www.foe.co.uk

 

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