Bosses at Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Safeway have told the government that there is no real appetite for putting GM foods back on the shelves. In a meeting held at DEFRA on Wednesday, chief executives at the top four multiples told DEFRA secretary of state Margaret Beckett they were neither pro nor anti-GM per se. However, the public remained resolutely opposed to the technology. A spokesman for the British Retail Consortium, which was represented at the meeting by director general Bill Moyes, said: "Retailers would happily stock GM foods if we had strong evidence of consumer demand. But it doesn't make commercial sense at the moment. Shelf space is at a premium and no one is going to stock products consumers don't want to buy. It's a no brainer for any customer facing organisation." A Tesco spokesman said: "As with everything else, we are led by customers on this issue, and they are telling us they don't want GM." The meeting followed the publication of a report from the government's strategy unit on the costs and benefits of GM crops. While existing GM crops could offer "some cost and convenience advantages to UK farmers" said the report, economic benefits to the UK were likely to be "limited, at least in the short term. Only a narrow range of existing GM crops are currently suited to UK conditions, and weak consumer demand is likely to limit take-up." Soil Association director Patrick Holden said: "Although the government spin on the report suggests there will be GM jam tomorrow in the form of long-term economic benefits, the report actually says the potential long-term benefit needs to be balanced against the possibility that new GM crops could introduce new risks." Although just 1,000 people had attended the public debate on GM crops over the summer, environment minister Elliot Morley said organisers had received 17,000 feedback forms. {{NEWS }}

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