Martin Hoyle and James E. Creswell. 2007. The effect of wind direction on cross-pollination in wind-pollinated GM crops. Ecological Applications 17:1234–1243.

Appendix F. Weather stations.

The chosen weather stations are listed in Table F1. For each crop, we chose weather stations in the European countries that grow the most of the crop. Weather stations were chosen as close to the crops growing regions as possible.

Sugar beet is grown in Southern Europe (and France; A. Guthrie, personal communication) to supply seed for the northern European root crop (Eastham and Sweet 2002). There is a higher risk of cross-pollination in these seed crops (Treu and Emberlin 2000). The main seed producing areas in Europe are the Po Valley in Italy and the Nerac region of France (A. Thornhill, personal communication). In the UK, sugar beet is grown mostly in East Anglia, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, the Midlands and the South West (DEFRA 2005).

Oilseed rape is grown in many parts of the UK, with little or no centralization of sites (DEFRA 2005), and is grown widely across Europe.

In Europe, the northernmost barrier for the cultivation of maize is Southern England, the Netherlands and northern Germany. Elsewhere in Europe it is grown on a very large scale. Over 70% of the British crop is grown below a line from The Wash to the Bristol Channel. However with the introduction of newer, earlier maturing varieties more maize is now being grown in the north of the UK (DEFRA 2005).

Italy is the largest rice producer in Europe, and the Lombardy and Piedmont regions are Italy's rice bowl. Krasnodar is the main rice-growing area in Russia (Kovalyov and Zinnik 2005). Valencia produces virtually all of the rice in Spain (La Tienda 2005).

TABLE F1. Countries and sites for weather data for (A) sugar beet, (B) oilseed rape, (C) maize, and (D) rice.

A) Sugar beet

B) Oilseed rape

C) Maize

D) Rice

† FAOSTAT data (2004) (http://apps.fao.org/default.jsp).

‡ No weather data available.

§ Quality of weather data poor.

|| From (http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/gm/fse/reports/000301/05.htm)

LITERATURE CITED

DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). 2005. The Farm Scale Evaluations. London: DEFRA. http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/gm/fse

Eastham, K., and J. Sweet. 2002. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs): The significance of gene flow through pollen transfer. In Environ. Issue Rpt. No. 28. European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Kovalyov, V. S., and A. N. Zinnik. 2005. Varietal plant breeding for adaptive rice growing in Russia. All-Russian Rice Research Institute, Krasnodar, Russia. http://ressources.ciheam.org/om/pdf/c58/03400081.pdf

La Tienda, Inc. 2005. Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. http://www.tienda.com/indepth/riceabout.html

Treu, R., and J. Emberlin. 2000. Pollen dispersal in the crops Maize (Zea mays), Oilseed rape (Brassica napus ssp. Oleifera), Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris) and wheat (Triticum aestivum). Soil Association, Bristol, UK.