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thomas davison

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Speed up relaxing of rules on GM crops, says Downing Street
European Union bureaucrats are being urged by David Cameron to �speed up� a relaxation on rules governing genetically-modified crops.

Prime Minister David Cameron wants it speeded up, yes and why?
12:30PM GMT 10 Dec 2012
Downing Street said it was working behind the scenes to encourage European Commission officials to relax rules on so-called �Frankenstein foods�.

The news came after Owen Paterson, the Government�s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs secretary, said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph that GM food should be grown and sold widely in Britain.

Mr Paterson also described consumer opposition to the technology as a �complete nonsense� and said the artificially developed food had �real environmental benefits�. People were even eating it in London restaurants without knowing it, he said.

Some senior Government figures privately believe that the technology � which can increase crop yields and prevent disease � is essential in assuring Britain�s future food security and to avoid dependency on imports.

Any move to allow the use of GM crops could be highly controversial, but Mr Paterson dismissed critics of the technology as �humbugs� and said that the case for GM food now needed to be made �emphatically�.

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This morning Downing Street backed Mr Paterson�s comments, insisting that the European Commission should relax rules on the development of the technology as soon as possible.

Asked if GM foods should be made more widely available to consumers in the UK, the Prime Minister�s official spokesman said: �This is something that is regulated at a European level by the European Commission.

�The Commission is currently looking at ways to make the regulatory system more efficient and more effective, and we are engaging with that because we think it would be possible to speed things up.

�We think this should be based on the science and we need to ensure public safety but if we can speed up a slow system then we should do that.�

The spokesman said the Government�s position on GM food was that �it is provided it is used safely and responsibility it can deliver benefits and held address the challenge of global food security.

�We believe it should be dealt with in a safe way. Obviously there is a regulatory environment which we need to respect and we have to ensure public safety, and take decisions based on the scientific evidence.�

The Coalition has so far allowed small-scale cultivation trials for GM food but its widespread use is effectively banned. Some GM products are contained in imported foods, but most supermarkets have banned the ingredients from their own-brand products because of public unease about the material.

In the late Nineties, Tony Blair, the former prime minister, promoted the use of GM food, but later retreated in the face of public scepticism and campaigns against �Frankenfoods�.

However, some senior ministers are keen to explore its use amid suggestions that opposition is waning.

In his interview, Mr Paterson: �Emphatically we should be looking at GM � I�m very clear it would be a good thing. The trouble is all this stuff about Frankenstein foods and putting poisons in foods. There are real benefits, and what you�ve got to do is sell the real environmental benefits.

�There�s about 160 million hectares of GM being grown around the world. There isn�t a single piece of meat being served [in a typical London restaurant] where a bullock hasn�t eaten some GM feed. So it�s a complete nonsense. But, the humbug! You know, large amounts of GM products are used across Europe.�

Mr Paterson�s interview with The Daily Telegraph alarmed opponents of GM food, who fear that the crops can cause environmental damage and even be harmful to human health.

The Soil Association cited a survey that showed GM food �should be encouraged� dropped from 46 per cent in 2002 to 27 per cent in 2012.

Peter Melchett, the association's policy director, said: �Owen Paterson is wrong to claim that GM crops are good for the environment. The UK Government�s own farm scale experiment showed that overall the GM crops were worse for British wildlife.

�US Government figures show that overall pesticide use has increased since GM crops have been grown there, because as scientists opposed to GM predicted, superweeds and resistant insects have multiplied.�

Mr Paterson�s views on GM food are understood to be shared by a number of his colleagues, including David Willetts, the science minister. Senior Liberal Democrats are also understood to be open to a change in policy.

This man has got to be on the take to promote GM crops as they are known to kill, or is that his plan to wipe out people so that more of his pals from abroad can come, live here then take over our country.
When you see what is happening in the UK at the moment, people heating or eating, having to pay more to buy food, energy, rent, petrol and you see what the government is pushing, GAY MARRIAGE, DRUG USE, KILLER GM FOOD, it says it all.
Big business is controlling our lives through our head in the money trough MPs, time the people put a stop to it, remember germany and the night of the long knives.