Environment groups say Britain is at risk of tainting conventional and organic crops with gene-modified varieties if the new field trial sites announced yesterday go ahead, reports Reuters.
"If planted close to organic farms, the trial sites risk contaminating organic crops," the Soil Association said in a statement.
The trial sites detailed by Britain's farm ministry, including 27 for rapeseed and 17 for sugar beet, are the second last of its three-year programme to evaluate whether gene-spliced crops should be grown commercially.
The government is to conform to its set separation distances, designed to ensure that cross-pollination is a maximum of one percent, even though farm minister Margaret Beckett had said that there was a case for wider distances.
Friends of the Earth commented, "The separation distances around these crop trials are pathetic. If they go ahead, neighbouring conventional and organic crops within a five kilometre radius will be at risk of GM contamination."
"The government knows the separation distances are inadequate but has recklessly failed to act."
When the trial site plans were first proposed last month, the government also asked its independent biotechnology advisers to draw up plans for a public debate, particularly to measure opinion on contamination of non-GM crops with modified material.
Public opinion on the matter was revealed in this week's radical blueprint on the future of English farming, published by the Policy Commission on Food and Farming. It noted, "the public wants a choice, including the choice to have GM-free food, while some producers, such as organic farmers, depend on being able to guarantee that their products are GM free."
"As things stand the public doubts whether that can be delivered, if a spread of GM crops is approved," it added.