Reuters | November 14, 1999
LONDON - Consumer resistance to genetically modified food can be overcome if scientists develop products with benefits people can understand, a leading British scientist said on Sunday.
"Twice the area of the UK is currently under GM (genetically modified) crops ... because farmers see the priorities," Sir Robert May told the Agbiotech 99 conference.
But consumers needed to be convinced of the nutritional benefits, he said.
May said consumers would be more enthusiastic once benefits were obvious, citing allergy free nuts as one welcome possibility with genetic modification.
Science could not guarantee that genetically modified foods would be totally safe, said May, who is the British government's Chief Scientific Adviser.
But there were dangers inherent in many foods and no reason why consumers should worry more about genetically modified food than other kinds, he added.
"I don't myself see anything intrinsically different ... Food is dangerous stuff," he said.
The world would need a new green revolution to feed a growing population in the future, May said.
Food production had doubled in the last 30 years, but alternatives to the widespread fertiliser use and the breeding techniques of the last green revolution were now needed, he said.
"Further expansion along these lines is clearly unsustainable," May said. "We must look either at catastrophe or at a doubly green revolution."
"We could not feed today's population with yesterday's agriculture. We won't be able to feed tomorrow's population with today's."
May said he wanted improved regulation of genetically modified foods, with all such products clearly labelled.
"The way forward is labelling so that whatever I think, you can have the choice," he said.
According to Benedikt Haerlin, genetic engineering coordinator of the environmental organisation Greenpeace, the scientific information about GM foods was insufficient to ensure safety.
"Greenpeace is not advocating a risk free world," he said, but there was a long list of questions about GM foods which could be answered "in the next decade or two."
"The only responsible way to handle this technology is to prevent the release of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) into the environment," he said.
