Prince Charles Speaks Out Against GM Crops

14th August, 2008

Yesterday, the Prince of Wales interviewed by the Daily Telegraph voiced his strong opposition to genetically modified crops. To give a summary genetically modified means according to Websters New Millenium Dictionary;-
Definition: pertaining to a living organism whose genetic material has been altered, changing one or more of its characteristics; bioengineered
Example: An example of genetically modified food is a soybean that has been specially modified to be impervious to the application of a specific pesticide.

Critics say the crops could harm wildlife and human health and mean large multi-nationals benefit as farmers have to buy seeds from them un der licence and cannot keep seeds in the traditional way. In effect the multi-nationals hold the patent to the DNA of the crops, whereas no-one owns the patent of traditional seeds. Supporters of GM technology say that crops can be made to grow in harsher conditions and poorer soil, require less polluting pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides and can help feed a growing global population.

Prince Charles said ""It is a gigantic experiment I think with nature and the whole of humanity which has gone seriously wrong. Relying on gigantic corporations for food, would result in absolute disaster. That would be the absolute destruction of everything... and the classic way of ensuring there is no food in the future. What we should be talking about is food security not food production - that is what matters and that is what people will not understand.

And if they think its somehow going to work because they are going to have one form of clever genetic engineering after another then again count me out, because that will be guaranteed to cause the biggest disaster environmentally of all time. Small farmers, in particular, would be the victims of gigantic corporations taking over the mass production of food. I think it's heading for real disaster. If they think this is the way to go....we end up with millions of small farmers all over the world being driven off their land into unsustainable, unmanageable, degraded and dysfunctional conurbations of unmentionable awfulness."

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