GM wine trial - playing with fire?

ENVIRONMENTALISTS have attacked a state decision to allow trials of genetically modified vines in Alsace.

The experiment could harm the image of Alsacian wine and risks causing environmental damage, they fear. The vines have been modified in a bid to make them resistant to a disease, court-noué (fan leaf).

Those who have spoken out include green politicians and the Confédération Paysanne - an agriculture union founded by former presidential candidate and green MEP José Bové — which has previously torn up fields of GM maize.

The trials will be done by research body INRA, which started similar ones several years ago but had them halted by a court due to procedural errors. The vines were destroyed by anti-GM activists.

The government says care will be taken to avoid cross-pollination by not allowing the vines to flower.

Jacques Muller, Senator for The Greens in the Haut-Rhin, where the trials will take place, said: "This is the wrong way to use public money.

"The future should be about developing natural, organic ways of treating crops, using natural predators and pheromones, not genetic manipulation. We know some methods, passed on by word of mouth, that can help, but they need scientific backing, and today more and more Alsacian growers are interested in this approach.

"Following the halt of the first trial they should have moved research in these directions."

Mr Muller added: "I fear that all Alsace wines could have their image tarnished by this. It’s playing with fire."

Guy Kastler of Confédération Paysanne, said the planned precautions would not stop insects sucking vines’ sap and transferring GM material that way. "The only way to be safe is to do trials in a confined area, not in open fields.

"There’s also an image problem - wine is seen as a natural product. People will not take GM wines seriously." He added it was possible militants would try to rip out the vines, but this was only a last resort. "When it happens it’s because they’ve not been listened to," he said.

A government spokesman said: "Court-noué causes a lot of problems to vineyard owners so it is important to find ways to combat it.

"We can’t tell if this works without doing trials."