GM Crop Destroyers Like Nazi Book Burners Scientist Claims

The Herald
Jul. 31, 2008

A leading scientist has likened protesters who destroy GM crop trials to people who burned books in Nazi Germany.

Professor Howard Atkinson, of the University of Leeds, whose trial into genetically modified potatoes was vandalised in June, accused campaigners of being closed-minded zealots.

He told the BBC's Farming Today programme: "I have great difficulty in seeing what the difference is between burning university books in 1933 and now trying to prevent new information finding its way into scientific journals to underpin policy development."

Of the protesters, he said: "I think they are people who believe in what they are trying to do but I don't think they are open to rational scientific debate. They have not opened their minds, they have closed their minds to that, that's what I mean by a zealot."

Prof Atkinson suggested the location and details of small-scale trials could be kept from the public, as they are in Canada, to prevent them being vandalised by anti-GM protesters.

Other options could include a national, secure field testing site for GM crops or that universities conducting trials should not have to bear the costs of security measures such as fences or guards, researchers speaking at a press briefing in London said.

They said the number of field trials had declined in recent years because of sabotage, damaging the UK's ability to inspire innovation and commercial investment.

Professor Jim Dunwell, of the University of Reading, said GM crops were being created which would be more drought-resistant or would take up nitrogen more efficiently, cutting the need for increasingly expensive chemical fertilisers.

Field trials were an important part of developing the "exciting opportunities" GM was presenting to tackle rising food prices and agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

Prof Atkinson said his study into resistance to crop-damaging nematodes in potatoes could be developed for Africans who depend on plantains for food.

"I don't think it's right that European attitudes are holding Africans back," he said.

"There's a fallacy in thinking doing nothing is without risk to the poor.

"I support anybody by any means trying to improve food in Africa. I don't believe GM is the panacea but I do think it's part of the future."

There is currently just one GM trial in the UK, into genetic solutions to potato blight, which was vandalised last year.

Protesters are able to find the sites in the UK because their location is publicly available under rules brought in to allow farmers to know what was being grown near them - but in Canada small-scale trials which are judged not to have environmentally damaging consequences are not publicised.

Professor Wayne Powell, of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, which is running the trial into potato blight, said current rules "should be reassessed in the face of global challenges we face and the potential benefits of GM".