GM vine study splits French wine industry

French scientist Jean Masson unlocks the gate of a heavily protected open-air enclosure. Behind the fence and security cameras, there are no wild animals or convicts, just 70 vines.

In the heart of the picturesque Alsace wine region, researchers have planted France's only genetically modified vines in the hope of finding a way to battle the damaging "court-noue" virus afflicting a third of the country's vines.

The modified plants will not grow grapes or yield any wine, and scientists at the state-financed National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), which is conducting the experiment, say it is safe.

"The environmental risk is nil," said Masson, head of INRA in the eastern town of Colmar. "We have taken all safety measures."

But many local winegrowers fear the plants will contaminate their vineyards and ruin the reputation of France's wine sector.

In France, resistance against genetically modified food is fierce. Farmer and environmentalist Jose Bove has shot to national fame for ripping up modified crops.

INRA stopped its first tests on genetically modified vines in the Champagne region in 1999 after protests. After years of talks with locals and winemakers, Masson said his researchers had now set up enough safety measures to satisfy critics.

They dug a hole of the size of a basketball court, put in a cover to shield the natural ground and planted the contested vines on soil from outside. The plants are also surrounded by some 1500 normal vines.

Masson said the prison-style fence was a request by environmentalists, who wanted to prevent animals and human intruders from carrying parts of the plants outside the enclosure. INRA has done testing only in the lower part of the vine, the rootstock, which did not carry any grapes.

Almost all French winegrowers have used separate rootstocks since the phylloxera pest nearly wiped out the European wine industry in the late 1800s. In response to the tiny louse, accidentally brought to Europe from the United States in 1860, European winemakers imported resistant American rootstocks and grafted their vines on to them.

INRA says no genetic information can pass from this rootstock into the plant's upper part - which grows the grapes. But to ease fears that a modified plant could one day yield wine, the researchers will strip the vine of any blossoms.

"We don't want to produce grapes. We want to answer the scientific question of whether this transgenic [genetically modified] root can lead to the plant developing durable resistance to this virus," said INRA's Olivier Lemaire, who is in charge of the project.

Winemakers agree the court-noue virus is causing havoc but they disagree over whether INRA's research is needed.

Winemaker Frederic Geschickt said he would rather live with the virus than accept the danger of genetically modified plants.

"French wines are already subject to strong market pressure. Over recent years, competition from New World wines has grown. The only solution for French wines is to affirm their particularity and their difference," he said.

Genetic tests risked making French wines uniform.

The wine sector - a pillar of French life that provides 75,000 jobs - has been hit hard by competition from "New World" rivals such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Chile.

- REUTERS