Environment Secretary Backs GM Foods

The UK Environment Secretary has openly backed the growing of genetically modified (GM) food.

Owen Paterson cited "environmental benefits" when explaining his decision to back the technology.

He said concerns about the impact on human health were "complete nonsense".

It is thought ministers could relax control on the cultivation of GM crops.

No GM crops have ever been grown commercially in the British countryside, but small-scale cultivation trials have recently been allowed to take place.

Mr Paterson was speaking to the Daily Telegraph.

He said: "Emphatically we should be looking at GM…I'm very clear it would be a good thing.

"The trouble is all this stuff about Frankenstein foods and putting poisons in foods.

"There are real benefits, and what you've got to do is sell the real environmental benefits."

It is argued that GM food can increase crop yield and avoid the need for pesticides, but many campaigners opposed the introduction of the food to the UK in the 1990s.

Mr Paterson said: "There's about 160m 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.”

The comments follow a recent consultation by the British government on new "agri tech" measures to boost British farming.

Mr Paterson told the Telegraph he was confident David Cameron would find an "appropriate moment" to back GM food.

"I'm very clear it would be a good thing," he said. "So you'd discuss it within government, you'd discuss it at a European level and you'd need to persuade the public."

(IT)