Subj: London Times - Britain should be GM-free, says Prince Date: 03-07-31 17:01:32 EDT From: [log in to unmask] (NLP Wessex) To: UndisclosedRecipients London Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-2-762240,00.html July 31, 2003 Britain should be GM-free, says Prince By Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor THE Prince of Wales has said that he wants a ban on genetically modified crops. During a visit to Cardiff he said: “We need a GM-free Wales — and a GM-free Britain, for that matter.” He also revealed irritation with remarks by Franz Fischler, the European Union’s Agriculture Commissioner, who said last week that any attempts for areas to declare themselves GM-free were illegal. The Prince’s reaction was blunt: “It’s ridiculous.” A report is to be sent to ministers in September before a decision is made on the commercial planting of GM crops. The Prince’s comments were made in what his aides last night described as a “private conversation” with a journalist from The Western Mail. A spokeswoman at St James’s Palace said: “It appears to have been an aspirational remark on the lines of, ‘I wish’, rather than a political pronouncement.” Peter Lundgren, a board member of the radical new farming organisation “farm”, said in response to the Prince’s comment: “Apart from the GM companies and the American Administration, who is pushing the commercialisation of GM crops? The public won’t buy them. The supermarkets won’t stock them. There are no overriding economic incentives, scientific risks to health and the environment remain unanswered, coexistence is impossible.” A spokeswoman for the Agriculture Biotechnology Council, which represents the main GM companies, said: “Perhaps the Prince of Wales might talk to some UK farmers involved in GM farm trials who are already anticipating using the benefits of this technology commercially in the UK.” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp