SIGNIFICANT OTHERS

n The journal Nature highlighted the environmental impact of GM crops in a new study which showed that monarch butterflies were killed by eating pollen from GM maize. The maize had been given a bacteria toxin gene which wipes out pests.

n The concerns about the threat to the countryside focus on two main fears - the possibility that pollen from GM crops could contaminate other plants and the dangers to wildlife from the sprays used on these crops.

n Northern Foods, 754, has announced it is to stop using GM ingredients because of consumer pressure.

n HRH Prince Charles has called for stricter tests on mutant crops. In an article in the Daily Mail, he asks what will happen and who will be held responsible if something goes wrong with a GM crop. He says: "Since bees and the wind don't obey any sort of rules - voluntary or statutory - we shall soon have an unprecedented and unethical situation in which one farmer's crops will contaminate another's against his will."

n Sir Paul McCartney is spending £3 million to rebuild consumer confidence in his late wife, Linda's vegetarian food range after discovery that some of the meals contained GM soya. All soya ingredients have been dropped and replaced by wheat for which there is no GM alternative. A new ingredient is being used in the vegetarian cheese meals to rid the food of GM ingredients - it is a new rennet from mushrooms.

n Last month a survey by Friends of the Earth found that 24 of the biggest 30 food producers in the UK were moving completely to non-GM sources.

n A microwave oven has been developed that can tell if a convenience meal contains GM ingredients. A bar code system invented by Kit Yam of Rutgers University, New Jersey, can also warn customers with allergies whether their dinner contains potentially dangerous ingredients. The meal package is simply swiped over the bar-coded scanner on the oven's front panel.