PROTESTS are going up over the first GMO farm-scale trials to take place in Herefordshire.

Members of Friends of the Earth in the county are demanding more information on the fodder beet trials at ADAS Rosemaund, Preston Wynne, this summer and will be pressing for a public meeting.

But there is also support for the trials which are to be confined to one field and will not be greater than four hectares. Experts are stressing that the Government-approved trials, being staged by Monsanto, are perfectly safe.

However, Frank Hemmings of Herefordshire Friends of the Earth said members intended to raise a petition expressing concern and with a view to preventing the trials taking place.

The trials will investigate the environmental implications of fodder beet modified for tolerance to the herbicide glyphosate and will form part of the farm-scale evaluations programme being undertaken by the Supply Chain Initiative Modified Agricultural Crops (SCIMAC) and the Department of the Environment.

Daniel Pearsall, a spokesman for SCIMAC, said he wanted to assure farmers and people living in the area that there would be no danger. "There is no risk to human health and no risk to the environment," he stressed.

The programme had received the full support of English Nature and other conservation groups and there was good reason to suggest that the trials could lead to reduced herb applications and give farmers greater flexibility.

And Professor Jim Dunwell from the University of Reading, who has worked on projects relating to GM crops said: "This is the least controversial of all tests."

Backing for the trials came from Godfrey Havard, manager of Bodenham Grain Stores, a few miles from the trial site at Bodenham, which has facilities for storing some 12,000 tonnes, plus bin storage. He said: "I am not concerned as long as the trials are carried out properly. Let's find out if there are benefits to be obtained."

Mr Hemmings said that he was concerned about beet running to seed before harvest. No GM seed must be spilled outside the trial field and the site must be monitored during the following years, he said. How are birds stopped from spreading seeds between trial sites?" he asked. Pollen on the wind had been known to travel up to 14 kilometres and some soil bacteria had been shown to pick up genes from GM plants, went on Mr Hemmings.

He pointed out that glyphosate reduced growth of earth worms and increased mortality. It was toxic to many beneficial fungi which helped plants take up nutrients in the soil.

Glyphosate could kill fish in concentrations as low as ten parts per million and cause poisoning symptoms in humans. However, he admitted that the trials were not as controversial as the rape ones.

A public notice in the Hereford Times says that cultivated fodder beet were normally sensitive to the herbicide Roundup Biactive. The modified fodder beet would be protected from Roundup Biactive sprays, unlike competing weeds which would be controlled.

For this year, the trial will be drilled in the spring and harvested in the late summer/early autumn.

Cropgen, a London company which aims to put a balanced argument for GM food, said concerned persons could contact them on 08456021793 at local call rates.