Now Prince Charles is taking advantage of Africa...gross! A report just out from a UK "think tank" says the opposite of Charles, by the way.
1. Where is the Prince's PhD in agriculture and biotech?
2. How exactly did 20 African states arrive at the conclusion that improved crops won't help them, considering they couldn't afford the research to even figure this out? Could someone have told them this...someone from England perhaps?
thisislondon.com
Charles blasts Government over GM
by Molly Watson
Prince Charles has made an outspoken attack on the Government's claims that GM foods are safe and necessary.
Writing in the Daily Mail, the Prince, who refuses to eat genetically modified food and has previously expressed concern about technology usurping "the role of God", warned that in accepting GM foods, Britain could be "embarking on an Orwellian future".
In what was his most direct criticism yet of the Government's policy, the Prince added his support to the growing level of complaint about GM foods that only four days ago was dismissed as media "hysteria" by the Prime Minister.
The Prince contended that: "We are constantly told that this technology may have huge benefits for the future. On the basis of what we have seen so far, we don't appear to need it at all." On the question of whether GM foods are safe to eat, the Prince answered that "only independent scientific research, over a long period, can provide the final answer". He added: "But what I believe the public's reaction shows is that we are nervous about tampering with nature."
The Prince dismissed as "emotional blackmail" one of the main arguments used by the Government to encourage the growth of GM foods - that they can solve world hunger. He said there was no research to substantiate this view and pointed to to the representatives of 20 African states who have published a statement denying that gene technologies will "help farmers produce the food needed".
The Prince criticised the Government for applying much less stringent rules to approving GM foods than for new medicines.
He doubted whether consumers will be able to exercise a genuine choice about whether they eat GM foods or not, saying: "Labelling schemes clearly have a role to play. But if conventional and organic crops can become contaminated by GM crops grown nearby, those people who wish to be absolutely sure they are eating or growing natural, non-industrialised, real food, will be denied that choice."
Monsanto, the biotechnology giant at the forefront of the development of GM crops, today rejected the Prince's claims. Corporate affairs director Tony Combes said: "Dozens of worldwide regulatory agencies have decided that biotechnology crops are safe."
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