Ministers and industry accused of exploiting world food crisis to relaunch campaign for GM food

The industry says genetically modified crops with higher yields will help tackle starvation and rising food prices.

And although critics believe this is simply 'propaganda', yesterday Environment Minister Phil Woolas added his voice to the debate.

The Government said previously that commercial planting would only go ahead if it can be shown to be safe for humans and the environment

Mr Woolas, who appears to be lined up as the Government's GM cheerleader, said: 'There is a growing question of whether GM crops can help the developing world out of the current food price crisis.

'It is a question that we as a nation need to ask ourselves. The debate is already under way,' he told The Independent newspaper.

Mr Woolas has held talks with the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, the GM industry's trade body.

Meanwhile, an unnamed minister told another newspaper: 'With the current problems, the first priority must be to increase food production. That means we must reopen the debate on GM.

'The green groups won't like it but we will have to take them on.'

However, campaigners said the GM industry had made claims of higher-yield crops for 20 years without delivering.

Clare Oxborrow, of Friends of the Earth, said attempts to push GM crops as the solution to world hunger were 'cynical'.

'The Government has been seriously misled if it thinks that GM crops are going to help tackle the food crisis. GM crops do not increase yields or tackle hunger and poverty.

Phil Woolas wants a debate on the benefits of GM crops

'Instead of helping the GM industry to use the food crisis for financial gain, the Government should be encouraging a radical shift towards sustainable farming.'

Jan van Aken, of Greenpeace, said: 'I am appalled that the GM industry is abusing the misery of millions of hungry people around the world, using it as propaganda to sell a product by claiming it would reduce hunger. There is no science behind the industry's claim.'

Pressure on global food supplies have stemmed from increased demand in China and India for a more Western diet of meat and dairy, poor harvests in Australia and a switch by some farmers to growing biofuels.

But some studies suggest that GM farming is not the answer.

The respected International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development recently reported there is no increase in average yields from GM crops, although the ABC denies this.

Professor Robert Watson, the chief scientist in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, headed the study involving more than 60 countries. It concluded that industrialisation of farming, including GM, has failed to provide sufficient food.

GM or transgenics  -  moving genes between plant species  -  would not supply plentiful, cheap food, his team found. He said: 'Are transgenics the simple answer to hunger and poverty? I would argue: No.'

More research was needed to establish whether GM crops offer any benefits, he added.

But the ABC said higher yields have been produced by certain types of GM corn, modified to include a toxin that kills pests. There are concerns these toxins also harm beneficial insects.

ABC's chairman, Dr Julian Little, said that the organisation 'welcomes the Government's recognition that GM crops could be a valuable tool in responding to the increase in food and fuel prices'.

'GM crops are not a "silver bullet", but must be seen as part of the solution, by producing crops which are more productive, which make more efficient use of scarce resources.'

In Britain, polls have shown that 70 per cent are opposed to GM crops in the food chain. Trials have shown harm to wildlife  -  and there are fears the food could trigger allergies.

Analysis

• Genetically modifying crops generally involves inserting genes to make them immune to certain weedkillers, so they survive but weeds die
• Some GM plants have been modified to include a toxin that kills the insects which eat them
• In 2002, research in France and the U.S. identified super-weeds. Genes resistant to weedkillers had been passed to wild plants
• In 2003, two out of three GM crop trials in the UK found a significant fall in insects and wild plants - threatening birds' food
• In 2005, Australian scientists abandoned a ten-year programme to create a GM pea after it triggered allergic reactions in rats
• No GM crops are under commercial cultivation in Britain. A trial is being carried out on a disease-resistant GM potato.
• GM firms hope the first commercial crops will be grown here within two years