Suddenly the GM debate seems to have begun again. After years of virtual apathy by the popular media because its own antagonism had killed off serious discussion, the subject is cropping up all over the place. In recent days there have been articles promoting GM in a number of newspapers, some of them, admittedly commenting on a series of TV programmes about genetically modified animals which also exposed the subject to public view. It would be inaccurate to suggest that all comments have been favourable but I have not yet heard the level of hostility that ruled a few years ago.
Today a new development is reported. American scientists at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, have apparently discovered how to genetically modify mosquitoes so that they can be used to combat the dreadful tropical disease, malaria. Concurrently another group of scientists at Imperial College, London, have created another strain of GM mosquitoes that mate normally but have no offspring. The males of this new type can be readily identified and separated mechanically from ordinary insects because they have fluorescent testicles.
With luck such developments will be seen to be in the public good - unlike most previous introductions that were perceived to be only in the interests of the profitability of the multi national companies that invented them. If so, these insects with shiny nether regions - like David Beckham, whose wife Victoria nicknamed him goldenballs - may come to be seen as the breakthrough the GM industry has been seeking for several years. And public acceptance of the technology can only be regarded as good news for UK and European farming.