Strong words from the UK Food Minister Owen Paterson who is in charge of food and farming. He has described opposition to genetic modification (GM) as “Humbug” and said concerns about human health are misplaced.
He was quoted in the Daily telegraph as saying “There’s about 160 million hectares of GM being grown around the world, there isn’t a single piece of meat being served [in a typical London restaurant] where a bullock hasn’t eaten some GM feed.”
Could this signal a change in UK policy towards GM? Apparently so, and it seems the time is right as recent polls suggest public opposition is beginning to diminish. In a world of increasing population GM could help to increase crop yield. But I think the UK government has got it right in terms of their policy, not blanket acceptance but licensing crops on a case-by-case basis.
Read the article in the Political section of the Daily Telegraph website
And the opposition reaction from the website GM watch