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Princess Calls For Open Mind On GM

According to the Daily Telegraph, the House of Windsor was still divided over scientific issues yesterday after the Princess Royal called for an open mind on genetically modified foods and therapeutic cloning. Earlier this year Prince Philip defended GM technology, which put him at odds with the Prince of Wales, who warned that the consequences of GM were "potentially disastrous".

Princess Anne said in her presidential address to the British Association science festival in London that there was "great potential for improving people's lives". She cited varieties of GM rice that had been enriched with iron and the precursors of vitamin A, which could play a role in compensating for deficient Third World diets. But she was careful to separate the need for scientific research on genetic engineering, which she believed "has to be encouraged", with appropriate safeguards, from each application of that research, which depended on balancing risks against benefits.