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GM crops needed in Britain, says minister Andrew Grice Ministers are preparing to open the way for genetically modified crops to be grown in Britain on the grounds they could help combat the global food crisis. Ministers have told The Independent that rocketing food prices and food shortages in the world's poorest countries mean the time is right to relax Britain's policy on use of GM crops. Last night, the Environment minister Phil Woolas held preliminary talks with the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, an umbrella group formed in 2000 to promote the role of biotechnology in agriculture. It is run by representatives from the companies Monsanto, Bayer CropSciences, BASF, Dow AgroSciences, Pioneer (DuPont), and Syngenta.
(Article continues below) He said: "There is a growing question of whether GM crops can help the developing world out of the current food price crisis. It is a question that we as a nation need to ask ourselves. The debate is already under way. Many people concerned about poverty in the developing world and the environment are wrestling with this issue." He stressed that the "very robust" procedures for ensuring the safety of experiments would continue, with scientists looking at each application on its merits. The move will anger environmental groups, who accuse the GM industry of trying to exploit the global crisis to win approval for their products. In 2004, after a heated public debate, the Government decided there was no scientific case for a blanket ban on GM crops. But amid fears over so-called "Frankenstein foods", it decided that commercial production would be allowed on a case-by-case basis, only if evidence showed it would not pose a risk to human health or the environment. There are no GM crops being grown in Britain and only one trial is taking place – of GM potatoes in Cambridgeshire.
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