Genetically Modified crops
The case for monitoring
7.39 Environmental concerns of the kinds discussed above have given rise to arguments for post-commercialisation monitoring. At present, the system implies that once consent has been given, the release is safe and needs no further monitoring, or consent should not have been given. But since the initial risk assessment is inevitably based more on basic assumptions and deductive logic than it is on empirical evidence, this is not a wholly satisfactory position. Once releases have been conducted on a large scale, monitoring is needed to check that the original assumptions are borne out in the field.
7.40 The recognition that there are environmental concerns about the introduction of GM crops has led the National Farmers' Union, SCIMAC (paragraph 3.18) and others to develop proposals for post-release monitoring. The EC has stated that it has now adopted the principle of post-release monitoring to 'verify the non-appearance of any harmful effects on human health and the environment' by modifications to EC Directive 90/220 on deliberate releases of GMOs into the environment. Details of how this is to be done have not been decided. The Working Party strongly endorses these developments and recommends that the Government should plan to make regular post-commercialisation monitoring of the impact of GM releases a general condition for all releases, with inspection of the results by regulators, public access to the monitoring results and provision for modification or revocation of consents if the monitoring results show that this is necessary. This monitoring should include impacts on biodiversity.