You can't do this kind of work in a laboratory. He denied that the government was preparing an about-turn on the issue. It is not a U-turn. Under the extended trials programme, there will be about 75 farm-scale trials, a significant increase on the 10 trials involved in the first year. Each will be around 25 acres in size.
Planting is unlikely to start before next spring.
Until now all the farm-scale trials have been conducted in England, mostly in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. The locations of the new sites will be announced in February. Policing the development of GM crops has been a thorn in the government's side. The public has proved wary of the new technology. Many major supermarkets and food manufacturers have now banned GM ingredients and one of the leading companies, Monsanto, is facing pressure to pull out of GM food because of the public relations damage it is causing.