Field release of transgenic crop plants, ecological aspects

Genetic engineering as a decentralised technology will strongly influence classical breeding. It will surpass boundaries of species, orders and classes, even kingdoms in systematics. In a case study on oilseed rape, the full complexity of risk assessment is demonstrated. Still, there is a lot of evidence from classical breeding which can be used as best fitting models. There is no reason to panic, since all transgenic wild relatives in Brassica will remain in agricultural systems. Wild relatives of Brassica are not penetrating natural habitats. This has also been demonstrated by numerous field trials with transgenic oilseed rape.
It would be important to follow in risk assessment a step-by-step strategy, which also allows differentiating carefully between regions and taking into account the nature of the transgene. Modern planning strategies of the second generation are best fitting this scheme, since they built on argumentation and don't look out for consensus, but try to come to solutions, which may also be zero-solutions in certain cases. This would leave no room for fundamentalist views, which often tend to generalise risk assessment prematurely.