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Luke Johnson's View: Starving From Ignorance

Luke Johnson, chairman of Belgo Group and founder of Intrinsic Value, writes in the Daily Telegraph that "A huge con has been perpetrated on the British public in the past few years by the environmental lobby, helped by sensationalist media. Major industries such as food manufacturing and supermarkets have meekly gone along with this fraud."

The eco-activists have convinced millions of rational people that "organic" food is healthy and good, and that genetically modified foods are dangerous, and headlines such as "Mutant Foods Set For School Dinners Ban" and irresponsible use of nonsense phrases such as 'Frankenstein Foods' have inflamed public opinion and hampered progress.

The reality is that GM foods are one of the few hopes that the Third World has of ending hunger and deprivation. Superstition and ignorance among educated people in the West are preventing farmers in Africa from producing safer, more plentiful crops. That Britain has suffered more misinformation about GM foods than most countries is especially disturbing, since the UK is a world leader in the biotech industry, with over 500 public and private biotechnology organisations.