Cropgen

Our own immediate interest, of course, lies in agricultural biotechnology. We therefore applaud the Prime Minister's insistence that vandalism is not the way to resolve issues: the current field trails to determine the environmental effects (if any) of growing transgenic crops in this country must be completed so that we actually know what those effects might be. That is exactly why so many opponents oppose them: they fear that there may be nothing untoward.

The use of modern methods in agriculture will not by themselves solve the world's food and population problems but without them all of us will be that much poorer -- and the poor will suffer the most. We in Britain will not be the worst affected but we have both the technical ability and the moral imperative to lead the way, by helping the poorer countries improve their agriculture, by developing new and better crops for them, by providing the technical assistance they will need to use them, and by importing them into the UK so they can be sold and the income generated improve poor people's lives in so many ways that we take for granted.