bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

An issue close to British stomachs is helping to boost the popularity of the heir to the throne.

 Genetically modified (GM) food is proving to be one of the hottest political potatoes in Britain with many people anxious about the effect it could have on their health and the environment.

 Hardly a day goes by without some new piece of research claiming to demonstrate either the safety or the risks of GM technology.

 But last week Prince Charles waded into the argument with an article published under his by-line in a national newspaper that has embarrassed the government but apparently done much to win him public support.

 In the article in the Daily Mail the prince was scathing about the lack of independent scientific research into the issue and expressed his concerns about the absence of stringent regulations covering cultivation.

 'Few of us are able to interpret all the scientific information which is available and even the experts don't always agree. But what I believe the public's reaction shows is that instinctively we are nervous about tampering with nature when we can't be sure that we know enough about all the consequences,' he wrote.

 The Prince has been a long- time critic of genetic tinkering with food and was previously ridiculed for his advocacy of organic farming.

 In the days when he attracted most attention for feuding with his former wife Diana, Princess of Wales, he was depicted in the media as pottering around his garden talking to the flowers.

 His first warning about the arrogance of the 'brave new world' of genetic engineering in a speech four years ago earned him condemnation for meddling.

 But recent years have seen the issue becoming more fashionable following the development of an increasing range of modified food- stuffs and shoppers in Britain have queued up to pay extra for organically farmed produce.

 In that time the prince has returned to his theme with a call to establish a royal commission to consider the ethical issues raised by the 'Frankenstein-like' manipulation of animals and crops.

 Last year he adopted his most aggressive stance yet in a letter circulated to 15,000 homes by the Soil Association, an organic lobby group, in which he said that before interfering with nature experts should ask not whether something was technically possible or safe, but whether it was right.

 In the letter he urged a boycott of GM products and said the consequences for health and the environment were simply unknown.

 Prince Charles' own farm at Highgrove in Gloucestershire in the west of England is all organic and he has launched a range of home-grown products to help preserve the environment by encouraging sustainable methods of farming.

 Recently he opened a forum to discuss the issue on his personal Web site that has drawn more than 10,000 replies mostly backing his crusade but also bringing him into conflict with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

 Just four days before the prince's article was published the prime minister hit out at the media for what he said was hysterical coverage of the GM foods issue.

 Mr Blair said he was confident that the new crops would produce tastier, healthier and cheaper products. He said he was happy for his own young children to tuck into food made from GM crops but declined an invitation for the family to do so on television.

 The government's Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Robert May, used stronger language describing organic farmers as a 'theological movement' and their leaders as 'ayatollahs'.

 But a recent government-funded poll found only 35 per cent of the public trusted officials to make biotechnology decisions on their behalf while only one per cent believed GM foods were good for them.

 Public suspicion over the safety of the new crops led all major supermarkets to announce recently they would no longer stock any products containing GM foods. At present in Britain there are no GM crops under commercial cultivation but 148 test sites where trials are being carried out at farms and research facilities mostly growing oil seed rape and sugar or beet for fodder.

 But internationally an area equivalent to the whole of the UK is already being farmed to produce such modified crops including wheat, maize and cotton, much of which is imported to Britain.

Experts say that in China all kinds of GM crops are grown, including rice and poplar trees, but statistics of what has been produced commercially are hard to come by and much of what is going on is believed to infringe Western copyrights.

 Downing Street has reacted with thinly disguised irritation to Prince Charles' contribution to the debate but officials have been anxious to avoid the impression of a clash between the prime minister and the palace.

 The prince's staff have been working hard at modernising his image and helping him to shrug off a reputation of being out of touch with issues which concern the man and woman in the street.

 By a long-standing constitutional tradition the British royal family does not get involved in political debates. But if the prince does speak out, unlike other public figures he can be sure he will not face being voted out of office.



The prince's hot potato