If ever there was a time for all who claim to care about the welfare of poor people to unite around a policy to provide them with enough to eat it is surely now. According to the World Bank 33 countries around the world face unrest because of reductions in the availability and sharp increases in the cost of food.
But the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development report, five years in the making and out today, appears to have split the world scientific community down the middle. On the one hand is the official report that bends over backwards to accommodate the bright green, pro organic and politically correct views of some of those who contributed to it. On the other is the minority version written by those representing agri-business which states categorically that GM should have been included as the greatest hope for mankind.
So, we have a classical division between politics, science and commerce. Actually it may not be quite as extreme in reality as some sectors of the media have portrayed it. I heard Prof Bob Watson, Defra's Chief Scientist, who chaired the group, say on the radio this morning that he did not reject GM but believed more could still be achieved by conventional plant breeding. Which doesn't sound unreasonable.
But he is alleged by other media to have said the answer to world food shortages lies in organic farming. Given that organic yields are so much lower than conventional, let alone GM, I find it difficult to believe he said it. Whatever else organic crops might do to achieve market share and higher prices they will not solve world hunger. But we all know how reporters can distort comments to fit their own editorial prejudices.
My own view is that GM crops must play a vital role in the future; that provided each development is fully researched and checked for safety there need be no danger to health or the environment; that to continue opposing their introduction in this country and Europe is counter-productive and unnecessary.
After all, as the FAO has pointed out, GM varieties are already being used by an estimated eleven million poor farmers across the Third World and a total of some one billion hectares were grown around the world last year. I am just sad that the authors of an otherwise worthwhile report have allowed themselves to be hijacked by influential pressure groups whose distorted agendas pose dangers for the whole world.