Government 'to back GM crops'

GM maize is the closest to being commercialised

The government appears to be ready to give the go-ahead for the limited use of genetically modified crops.

Minutes of a Cabinet committee meeting seen by BBC Two's Newsnight suggest qualified approval for sowing GM maize is imminent.

Ministers predicted public opposition, although Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett was said to have argued there was no scientific case for a ban.

The government has emphasised that a final decision has yet to be taken.

The leaked minute came at the same time as researchers said a national debate across the UK about people's views of genetically-modified crops probably exaggerated the strength of anti-GM feeling.

People see big money to be made from this... and that is what seems to be driving policy rather than a real commitment to good science Sue Mayer GeneWatch GM opposition 'overestimated'

The government-funded GM Nation? report said the public mood "ranged from caution and doubt, through suspicion and scepticism, to hostility and rejection".

But a team of academics from Cardiff University, the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Institute of Food Research said although the project did break new ground, it had been over-hasty and under-resourced.

A Mori poll of 1,363 people for UEA found 36% opposed GM foods, 13% were in favour and 45% thought they could have future benefits.

'Authoritative argument'

According to the leaked Cabinet committee minute, a pro-GM campaign targeting key MPs would precede any policy statement to Parliament.

It is only one crop but it would be a great tragedy for this country if we went ahead with it Patrick Holden Soil Association

Minutes of the committee meeting say: "Opposition might eventually be worn down by solid, authoritative scientific argument."

Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, told BBC's Radio 4's Today programme that going ahead with maize would be "a great tragedy" because it would lead to widespread commercialisation with environmental consequences and could prevent the produce of GM-free crops.

He claimed the government's wide consultation had made a "rod for their own backs" because its research concluded there was no economic case and the public were against it.

Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper said the government was desperate to show Britain was not "anti-science".

'Big money'

And Sue Mayer, of pressure group GeneWatch, claimed the government was determined to make the public accept GM crops through "a series of one-sided announcements".

Big companies... want to make a big profit bonanza out of cornering the world's food supply Michael Meacher, Former environment minister

Policy was being driven by the potential seen by some to make "big money", she added, rather than "a real commitment to good science".

But Dr Julian Little, of the Agriculture Biotechnology Council, told Newsnight that GM maize was "at least as safe its non-GM equivalent".

"That has been demonstrated time and time again," he added.

"And it is now time to actually go forward."

Former environment minister Michael Meacher told the programme the government had no "moral, scientific or political authority whatsoever to take this decision".

FSEs - WHAT WERE THEY ABOUT? GM tests show wildlife danger All sides claim GM 'victory' Atrazine chemical fuss Q&A: GM crop trials

The control crop grown alongside GM maize in farm-scale evaluation (FSE) trials had been sprayed with the weed killer atrazine, which had since been by banned throughout the European Union - invalidating the results, he added.

The Bush administration in the United States was pressuring the government to press ahead because "big companies... want to make a big profit bonanza out of cornering the world's food supply", Mr Meacher said.

"There are no consumer benefits at all," he added.

But Professor Vivian Moses, from the advisory body on biotech agriculture, said most people were "remarkably uninterested" in GM and "do not bother to read labels".