BioWorld International Correspondent

PARIS - France's National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA) is planning to resume field trials of genetically modified vines, three years after earlier ones were suspended in response to public concerns about, and opposition to, GM crops.

The new trials are to be conducted in the Alsace region of eastern France, following consultations between the interested parties - researchers, wine growers and the local community. INRA said it is the first time a French research establishment has organized this kind of consultation process in a bid to achieve a consensus.

As a result of this process, INRA has undertaken not to use transgenesis to develop better grape varieties, but only to confer resistance to disease on existing ones. As it happens, both the varieties of transgenic vines it has developed are resistant to the nematode worm, which wreaks havoc in French vineyards.

The earlier field trials were carried out for five years in the vineyards of the champagne producer Moët & Chandon, but since it decided to halt them in 1999, the GM grape varieties have been sleeping in the National Institute of Agronomic Research laboratories. Yet researchers say the nematode worm affects more and more vineyards each year and is becoming increasingly resistant to pesticides.

Provided they are approved by the relevant ministries and the government's advisory body, the Biomolecular Engineering Commission, the new field trials will last for five years. They will be monitored by a local committee to which the results will be submitted before being published. This monitoring will encompass the environmental impact and other health and safety criteria, the results of which will also be made known.