Never mind horsemeat, we need to talk about GM

Is it time for the UK and others to embrace GM technology and save the world from a food security crisis?

If so, then there is some good news: Cameron today gave the move his backing. Unfortunately, it was Lord Cameron of Dillington, all-party chair of the parliamentary group on agriculture and food, rather than the PM.

The call came at the Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum Keynote Seminar - a gathering of food and drink companies, MPs and eco groups to discuss the issue that, until horsegate reared its ugly head, was seen as the greatest threat to the industry and the planet. How can governments tackle the need to feed a booming world population without creating a resource crisis that would have a disastrous impact on prices and carbon emissions?

The issue of GM is again looming large for Cameron - of the David strain - and what was striking at today’s conference was the almost unanimous support among often opposing groups, including anti-poverty charities, farmers’ lobby groups, and food companies, for a massive increase in research surrounding GM.

If we are to produce more, from less, creating less waste in the process, GM is increasingly seen as the answer.

Yet is the UK - over and above the EU - running scared of GM, particularly amid the frenzy of public concern over what goes into our food whipped up by horse DNA revelations?

According to Nick Von Westenholz, chief executive of the Crop Protection Association, politicians have been afraid to tackle GM because of “knee-jerk reactions often based on poorly informed campaigns”.

Last year’s Green Food Project called for GM and other new technologies to be explored across the food and drink industry as a priority, but the industry is still awaiting a government report on how to progress this. “There’s no point in us talking about how we take R&D forward if it’s going to be held up by policy makers,” said Von Westenholz.

Environment secretary Owen Paterson recently told the NFU conference that EU objections to GM were standing in the way of its potential, but even if he is a supporter, there is scepticism over whether Defra will act.

A speaker at today’s conference asked for a show of hands among the 200-strong audience: who was happy with the government’s record on tackling food security? No hands. Who was confident about the future? About a dozen went up. Hardly optimistic.