March 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. approved its first commercial growing of a genetically modified crop, six years after the European Union allowed member states to license the feed corn produced by a Bayer AG unit.

``We should agree in principle to the commercial cultivation'' of the herbicide-tolerant corn, Chardon LL, Margaret Beckett, the U.K. Secretary for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, told Parliament. ``I do not anticipate commercial cultivation before spring 2005.''

Groups including the National Trust and the Consumers' Association had urged Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to postpone approval, saying more study is needed. A parliamentary advisory panel last week urged a delay of at least four years to assess the risks.

The EU hasn't licensed any GM seeds since 1998, prompting complaints to the World Trade Organization by the U.S., Canada and Argentina, the biggest producers. Companies including Bayer, Monsanto Co., Syngenta AG, Dow Chemical Co. unit Dow AgroSciences and Danisco A/S are seeking EU approval of 25 GM products.

The EU's de facto moratorium won't be affected by the U.K. announcement, said Bernard Marantelli, a spokesman for the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, a U.K. lobby group sponsored by GM companies.

`Political Will'

``We see this very much as symbolic of political will,'' Julian Little, a Bayer CropScience spokesman, said of the U.K. approval. ``It reaffirms the U.K. as a place where decisions are based on scientific fact.''

Bayer, Germany's second-largest drug and chemical maker, won't make much money from today's decision, and may have to wait years before any Chardon LL is planted in the EU, he said. In the U.K., only about 100,000 hectares of land are planted with corn, 99 percent of it for animal feed, he said.

The Bayer weedkiller, Liberty, designed to be grown with Chardon LL, needs approval by the U.K.'s Pesticides Safety Directorate. The U.K. also needs to come up with rules on the necessary distance between gene-altered and other crops, and on liability for contamination.

``Chances of it being planted this year are zero, and we'd be very lucky to get it to market next year,'' Little said.

Government Survey

A government-sponsored survey last year found that 54 percent of those polled never want GM crops grown in the U.K. More than 90 percent of the 36,557 respondents said GM crops might damage the environment and pose health risks.

``The benefits are not proven, and the risks not properly assessed yet,'' said Simon Toseland, a spokesman for the Soil Association, the U.K.'s leading certifier of organic farming and food. Insufficient study has been done on the health effects of eating GM food, and two-thirds of non-GM crops in the U.S. have been contaminated, Toseland said in an interview.

The U.K. had almost 4,000 organic farmers at the end of 2003, with sales of more than 1 billion pounds ($1.85 billion) a year, he said.

Only Spain among the EU's 15 members has any sizeable cultivation of GM crops, growing as much as 30,000 hectares of gene-altered corn, according to Conrad Caspari, managing director of Agra CEAS Consulting. The government last week approved another nine varieties of GM corn for cultivation.

To contact the reporter for this story: Peter McGill in London on at pmcgill1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 9, 2004 07:40 EST