Sutton's green experts have joined the national outcry against genetically modified crops.

Environmentalists at the Centre for Environmental Initiatives at Carshalton have added their voice to the growing protest against research into genetically modified crops.

The potential environmental disaster which some scientists believe could result from the planting of genetically modified super-crops armed with in-built power to beat pests and disease has never been far from the headlines in recent months.

Activists have been digging up crops, and scientists have been staking their careers on statements about whether new strains of laboratory designed crops are harmful or not.

A spokesman for the Centre for Environmental Initiatives says there has to be a catch: "The whole process is completely unnatural, unlike traditional plant breeding. You might think that after BSE the scientists would be a bit more cautious about interfering with nature. Not at all. They are completely gung-ho, despite the fact that there are obvious risks. The most obvious is that once genes have been moved around they will not necessarily stay where they have been put. For example, the gene which makes the crop able to resist weed killer might move into weeds - then we'd have weed killer-resistant weeds.

"And once the genetic genie is out of the bottle there is no way it can be put back. The consequences for the environment are completely unpredictable. The only safe and sensible approach to genetic engineering is to have nothing to do with it."

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