EXTRACT: Clare Oxborrow, a food campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: 'We have heard a lot of claims from the industry how GM food will help climate change or poverty but the simple fact is it has failed to deliver. There is no evidence to support Country Life's claims.'
Jonathan Matthews, of GM Watch, said: 'This is exactly the kind of crisis narrative the industry likes to put out.
'We have heard the promises of drought-resistant crops for years but they are nowhere to be seen. Current issues like the grain price increases enable the industry to peddle this scaremongering.'
---
GM food wins backing from Country Life
By Nick Britten
The Telegraph, 19 March 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/19/eaeco119.xml
The campaign for genetically modified food will receive a significant boost when Country Life, the influential countryside and property magazine, calls for its widespread introduction to help feed the world's starving.
In a hard-hitting editorial, the magazine argues that for the Government to ignore GM crops is 'immoral' and 'criminal'.
Climate change, the huge rise in the cost of food and a worldwide population explosion are causing problems that embracing GM food could help alleviate, it adds.
Mark Hedges, the editor of Country Life, told The Daily Telegraph that people could no longer ignore the issue and accused politicians of being too 'short-sighted'.
He added: 'People need feeding. Either you find a way of doing that or let them starve.'
advertisement
He said in his editorial that with the world's population expected to grow to nine billion, 'we shall need different kinds of plants - more productive, multi-tasking - and need them quickly'.
He added: 'In a hungry world, the refusal of a rich and well-fed country such as Britain to exploit its agriculture to the full could soon be regarded as immoral.
'Places where deeper boreholes have sucked the land dry will need drought-resistant crops, if they're to grow any crops at all. Where too much water has been abstracted from aquifers, allowing seawater to seep in, there will be a demand for saline-tolerant plants.'
He said the long-term future of the world 'looks far from bright', adding: 'Wars could break out over water.
'Flooding and desertification could cause huge movements of people, on a par with those experienced during the Dark Ages.
'We're running short of oil; before long, we may find ourselves running short of metals, too. Our children and grandchildren will be hard pressed to meet the enormous challenges that face them. But GM technology has the potential to alleviate some of the dangers.
'Future generations will think us crazy, or criminal, not to embrace it.'
GM food involves altering a plant or animal's DNA to ensure it contains certain qualities. But concern over its contents, safety, and criticisms over labelling have led to it being shunned by shoppers.
Clare Oxborrow, a food campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: 'We have heard a lot of claims from the industry how GM food will help climate change or poverty but the simple fact is it has failed to deliver. There is no evidence to support Country Life's claims.'
Jonathan Matthews, of GM Watch, said: 'This is exactly the kind of crisis narrative the industry likes to put out.
'We have heard the promises of drought-resistant crops for years but they are nowhere to be seen. Current issues like the grain price increases enable the industry to peddle this scaremongering.'
...
Read Country Life on 'Frankenstein Foods' [pdf] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2008/03/18/countrylife.pdf
Go to a Print friendly Page
Email this Article to a Friend
Back to the Archive
|
