Whilst our own agriculture secretary may be planning to convert the UK to GM food :

At present no GM crops are commercially grown in the UK, and the previous Labour government was nervous of promoting GM foods because of fear of a renewed public backlash against “Frankenstein foods”. But in her first interview in charge of the department of environment food and rural affairs, the minister committed the new coalition to becoming the most pro-GM government yet, saying she was in favour of GM foods “in the right circumstances”.

“GM can bring benefits in food to the marketplace. The sale should not be promoted by the taxpayer. [New Environment minister] Lord Henley has approved a trial of a potato blight-resistant variety. That’s the kind of modification that can reduce the amount of agro-chemicals which need to be applied,” said Spelman, who spent 15 years in the agriculture industry and worked as director of a biotechnology lobbying firm.

She added: “There are benefits to developing countries, like drought resistance or resistance to high salt content in water. The principle of GM technology is [OK] if used well. The technology can be beneficial.”

For reasons which may or may not be related to her business interests :

On the campaign trail David Cameron said

“It is the next big scandal waiting to happen. It’s an issue that crosses party lines and has tainted our politics for too long, an issue that exposes the far-too-cosy relationship between politics, government, business and money.”

This week Cameron appointed Caroline Spelman to be the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.  Obviously he feels that nanny-gate is all water under the bridge. Spelman’s long history in agricultural politics and lobbying somehow makes her an ideal candidate for the job in his judgment.

There is an interesting article at Pravda (the Russian one, not the BBC) on the US influence promoting GM crops to the worlds food markets :

Today, the USA tries to make farmers cooperate with the corporations selling GM seeds. The farmers will probably be forced to purchase the seeds from agricultural enterprises rather than build up the stock of the seed grains single-handedly. Special seed sterilization technologies can be used as well, RIA Novosti reports. The technology makes the seeds ripen only to a certain extent when they are unable to grow, which nullifies the use of a part of the harvest as seed grains.

It is worthy of note that the patents for over 90 percent of all GM seeds in the world belong to three giant companies: Syngenta (Novartis, Switzerland) and its Swiss division, Monsanto (Pharmacia, USA). Du Pont (Pioneer) is also named as one of the largest producers of GM products, as well as Advanta (Astra Zeneca + Cosun, Britain-Holland).

These companies control nearly two-thirds of the whole market of pesticides, a quarter of the commercial market of grains and practically 100 percent of the market of GM grains.

Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine need to join their efforts in coordinating their actions to confront such a perspective. The potential for growing healthy wheat on the former USSR is enormous. However, many of Russia’s friends may wish to plant resistant GM wheat after the drought.

The main point I wanted to make though, is that the Pravda story has a very amusing photo caption which neatly sums up my thoughts on GM crops.

Say Monsanto!