Genetically modified foods are likely to be safer to eat than
conventionally produced crops, the government's outgoing chief
scientific adviser, Sir David King, said today.
Reaffirming his long-term support for GM, King said that many of the reservations and concerns about the controversial technology have proved to be "unreal".
With the world's population rising and climate change likely to
affect crop yields, GM technology provided a "sophisticated" solution to
future demands for food, he said.
King said that with its pioneering role in molecular biology, Britain was well placed to develop the technology safely.
GM opponents described King's faith in genetic manipulation in solving future food demands as "pure fantasy".
"There is not a shred of evidence that GM crops will increase
yields," said the Friends of the Earth GM campaigner Claire Oxborrow.
"They are all modified for insect resistance and the big money is going
into commodity crops like soya, cotton and oilseed rape, which are
monoculture and limit biodiversity.
"Consumers want better local produce and GM crops are not going to provide a solution to that."
King steps down at the end of the year after seven years in the post.
He will use a valedictory speech at the Royal Society this evening to
argue the case for GM food.
"By mid-century, the current population of 6.5 billion will have
reached 9.5 billion. We have got a planet with overstretched resources,"
he told the BBC's Today programme.
"If we are going to feed that population, with climate change, with
changing rainfall conditions, we are going to have to get even cleverer
with developing new crops.
"We need the technology that can deliver that, and in my view we have the technology. It is GM."
He acknowledged that a sizeable proportion of the population had
worries about the development of GM products. "I think there are all
sorts of concerns that are turning out to be unreal," he said.
King said tight regulation was needed to ensure that GM was developed
in a way that allayed public anxieties, and said Britain had shown
itself able to put the right regulatory framework in place.
"It is a highly sophisticated technology," he said. "One of the
things I really do want to say is that, because the technique is so
sophisticated, in many ways it is probably safer for you to eat GM
products - plants that have been generated through GM - than normal
plant foods, if you have any sort of reaction to food, because you can
snip out the proteins that cause the negative reaction to certain parts
of the population."
King was appointed chief scientific adviser in 2000. He has described
climate change as the "biggest single global challenge we face" and has
said that all nations need to draw up plans to adapt and mitigate the
effects.
The dangers posed by climate change include a massive threat to
wildlife, he has said, and the potential for hundreds of millions of
people to go hungry.
Last year he said nuclear power should be used to provide as much as 30% of Britain's energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In his BBC interview, King said more must be done to deliver a future
beyond the Kyoto climate treaty, and that he was "feeling very
impatient about this". To prevent long-term disaster he said a global
target for atmospheric carbon should be set.
He said he was disappointed that the British government had not
pushed forward with more nuclear power stations after its 2003 energy
white paper.
