Scientists condemn Prince Charles` GM crop views | Checkbiotech

Home | Contact Us | Partnership | Site Map

left shadow

Checkbiotech - for emerging fields of science

NEWSLETTERS SUBMIT CONTENT

Checkbiotech Home

Sign In | Register

bottom shadow


	View Edit Domain: GreenBio Title: * Body: LONDON, UK - The Prince of Wales was accused of launching an ignorant rant about genetically modified crops last night after claiming that the technology would cause "the biggest environmental disaster of all time" and lead to "no food in the future".The Prince`s comments, in which he blamed GM food and modern agriculture for environmental and social problems such as climate change and food shortages, were described by leading scientists as "shockingly ill-informed".<br /><br />Plant researchers said that he had completely misunderstood the benefits and risks of GM crops, which the Prince labelled a "gigantic experiment with nature and the whole of humanity that has gone seriously wrong". They also ridiculed his contention that agricultural biotechnology was contributing to major challenges such as global warming.<br /><br />Mike Childs, campaigns director of Friends of the Earth, defended the Prince`s comments, however, saying that GM crops had been exaggerated as a potential weapon against world hunger. Prince Charles, a long-time critic of GM crops who accused scientists a decade ago of meddling in "realms that belong to God and God alone", made his comments in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.<br /><br />Though the Government, plant scientists and industry are promoting GM crops as part of the solution to global food shortages, the Prince said that biotechnology had already proved itself a dangerous failure. "Why else do you think we are facing all these challenges, climate change and everything?" he said.<br /><br />The role of "gigantic corporations" in food production was leading humanity towards "absolute disaster", driving small farmers off their land into "unsustainable, unmanageable, degraded and dysfunctional conurbations of unimaginable awfulness". Today`s agriculture was "the classic way of ensuring that there is no food in the future", he said.<br /><br />Food shortages and rising prices should be addressed not by raising production with high-tech crops that boosted yields, but by adopting methods of farming that were more in tune with nature.<br /><br />"What we should be talking about is food security, not food production - that is what matters and that is what people will not understand. And if they think it`s somehow going to work because they are going to have one form of clever genetic engineering after another then again count me out, because that will be guaranteed to cause the biggest environmental disaster of all time."<br /><br />© 2008 The Peninsula. Captcha: Please Enter Code : * Time Zone: * Select the time zone Vocabularies Newsletter: Domain: Show summary in full view Input format Filtered HTML Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. Lines and paragraphs break automatically. Full HTML Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. Lines and paragraphs break automatically. news_filter Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. More information about formatting options			Related Articles Experts Carrying Out Research On GMOs Commission publishes report on socio-economic aspects of GMO... The GM debate is about more than biosafety Commentary: Oil and water - together again Mexican trial of GM maize stirs debate If we want to feed the world, we must go GM Peru relaxes GM rules for now The world needs GM agriculture Nigeria must press ahead with GM crops Nigerian biosafety bill may fail, say scientists Top GreenBio Articles

Home | Partnership | Contact Us | Site Map | News Site Map
© 2000-2012 Checkbiotech.org | Disclaimer