THE GOVERNMENT has responded to public concern on genetically engineered crops, heightened last week by the Prince of Wales, by launching a study of their possible harmful effects on the environment.
The study, which is expected to report quickly, may throw a question mark over Britain's first genetically engineered harvest, of an oilseed rape specially modified to be tolerant of weedkiller, likely to be licensed for planting from next spring.
It may also give support to growing calls for a five-year moratorium on the commercial growing of all genetically-engineered crops in Britain.
The moratorium has been requested unanimously - with little publicity - by all of the Government's wildlife agencies: English Nature, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
It is strongly supported by green groups such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Friends of the Earth.
They fear that newly-developed herbicide-tolerant crops in particular pose a great threat to wildlife, as the more deadly dose of weedkiller they can sustain wipes out everything else in the field - the other flowers and plants, the insects and the birds that depend on them - rendering the countryside sterile.
Prince Charles took up these concerns last week when in an impassioned outburst, he said that genetic engineering "takes mankind into realms that belong to God and God alone". We should stop and ask whether this is something we should be doing, he said.
The prince criticised firms for trying to persuade the public that the growing of these crops should be allowed in Britain, and said he would not eat food made from such produce, nor give it to his family or guests.
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