The Express

Why Our GM Policy Is The Only Safe One

I am a consumer as well Cabinet ministersomeone with family being an MP. And I can assure Express readers that the new Government Coordinator on GM Foods my priorities are same yours - safety of protecting environment. These also for Government.

In the few weeks I have been in this job, I have met and listened to many representatives from industry, consumer and environmental groups, and organisations such as Monsanto and Unilever, the Soil Association, the Five Year Freeze campaign, the National Consumer Council and the Consumers' Association. And I have had many letters from friends on the subject.

More than anything else, people tell me they want more and clearer information on the subject. That is the only basis on which greater trust can be built. As a government, we understand that and we are taking a further step forward.

Today a new GM website is being launched at www.gm-info.gov.uk. I hope people who visit the site will be able to get answers to many of their questions on GM foods and crops.

We are neither pro nor anti GM foods or crops. We are, to put it simply, pro-safety, pro-environment and pro-choice.

I don't want to deny people things they might want but people need information. They need to know what they're buying. So this Government is extending and improving food labelling so that consumers can make an informed choice in the shops - and in cafes and restaurants too.

The food trade doesn't respect borders between different countries, that is why we have played a major role in getting all of Europe to ensure that food containing GM soya and maize is properly labelled. We will soon launch a major consultation exercise to ask people how we can improve food labelling across the board.

No GM foods can go on the market without rigorous and lengthy research by scientists from Britain, Europe and the rest of the world. The only GM foods that are currently on sale in this country were licensed by the last Tory government - though to listen to them you would think they had never heard about it before.

This Government has now created one of the toughest regulatory systems in the world, far more rigorous for GM foods than for conventional or organic crops. If Elizabethan England had the sort of regulatory system we have now there is no way the potato would ever have been introduced into this country.

There are genuine fears that GM crop production might have an adverse effect on our wildlife. That is why GM crops cannot be grown commercially in the UK until we are satisfied that there will be no unacceptable effects on the environment.

To those who say why bother if no one wants to buy the stuff, I say we must keep an open mind. It may have benefits for the environment, by using less pesticide, and there may be benefits for the consumer in terms of choice and better products.

In medicine we are already seeing GM products used to produce insulin for diabetics, to help cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and to improve blood products for haemophiliacs. But we will not say yes to the commercial growing of GM crops until we are sure they are safe for the environment. That is why, with the support of many conservation bodies, such as English Nature and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, we are engaging in farm-scale trials of GM crops to see what impact there might be. And until those tests are complete, years from now, no crops will be commercially grown.

Some people are against these trials taking place but we are making sure that the environment is properly protected. Before any trials even get to farm scale they are conducted in the laboratory, in greenhouses and on smaller scale sites. Then those crops which do make it to farm-scale trials are always kept separate from other crops and the separation distances remain under constant, independent review.

We are the only country currently insisting on trials that are this thorough and strict. Let's have an informed and open debate. The jury is still out on this very new science.

Instead of people shouting from behind their barricades, I hope we can move forward to find a common ground, based on sensible foundations of science, inclusiveness and choice.Improving access to information for people is essential to this. I hope the launch of our website today will help.