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GM Crops Could Solve Food Supply Problems

Scotland's top businessmen have been told that genetic modification could provide the answer to the world's expected population boom.

Bill MacFarlane Smith, the head of scientific liaison and information services at Invergowrie's Scottish Crop Research Institute, told a delegation from the Institute of Directors that the doubling of the world's population over the next 50 years could cause food supply problems.

But he believed GM crops could help ensure the world of the future was fed.

He said: "Genetically-modified organisms can also play a big part in easing the plight of those people dying of starvation in Third World countries.

"The diet of many people in the Third World is also severely-lacking essential vitamins and iron, which can lead to blindness and death. Genetically-modified crops, engineered to contain such vitamins, can put a stop to some of this suffering."

Mr MacFarlane Smith said public concern over GM foods had been heightened by adverse publicity. He claimed the "scare-mongering" prevented any advance in the use of genetic modification.

"There are no reported instances of health problems or environmental harm caused by genetic modification and talk of 'Frankenstein Foods' is misleading.

"Genetic modification brings with it many health benefits. Most diabetics now rely on very pure insulin, produced using GM micro -organisms," he said.

"In addition, genetic modification has not only been used to produce vaccines against Hepatitis B, but also to increase the vitamin and iron content in plants as well as producing anti-oxidants, which help combat heart disease, strokes and cancer."

Mr MacFarlane Smith said genetic modification was a logical extension of natural plant breeding - which he described as "crossing the best with the best and hoping for the best - an inexact science". He called for an open, informed debate so that the possibilities offered by genetic modification are not squandered.

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