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'Frankenstein food' crops could be here in two years
Daily Mail

Genetically modified crops could be grown commercially in Britain within two years amid official efforts to water down policing of the controversial "Frankenstein food" technology.

Advisers to the Government claimed yesterday that the farming regulatory regime is unfairly weighted against the growing of GM crops.

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Frankenfoods: GM food could be here within two years

ACRE - the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment - wants a lighter touch system that concentrates more on the claimed benefits of GM farming rather than any potential harm to the countryside and health.

It suggested GM crops could solve future food famines caused by climate change and population growth.

The committee, largely of scientists, also argued that GM crops could become the only effective alternative to using oil for producing plastics and other chemicals.

The chairman, Professor Chris Pollock, has been in the vanguard of efforts to overturn blanket consumer opposition to GM farming.

He believes that if GM crops with health benefits can be developed - such as wheat protein that protects against heart disease - the technology's negative image among consumers will be reversed.

However, GM critics such as Friends of the Earth dismissed the claimed benefits as "fantasy".

They said UK trials had found that GM farming practices disrupt the natural balance, threatening wild plants, insects and birds.

ACRE's proposed radical overhaul of the way new farming practices are regulated would involve watering down the policing of GM, while introducing an assessment regime for other new farming systems.

Professor Jules Pretty, the deputy chairman, predicted that the UK will get its first commercial production of GM crops within two to five years, probably oilseed rape or forage maize.