Backing for poacher turned gamekeeper

A CLAIM that Scottish politicians were 15 years out of date in their refusal to accept genetic modification and their policies would lead Scotland back into the dark ages produced the biggest round of applause at the World Potato Congress in Edinburgh yesterday.

Ironically, the man making the accusations, Mark Lynas, a committed environmentalist, had back in the 1990s been active in opposing GM technology as a self-styled “crop basher”.

But as he said yesterday he now believed using genetic modification was the best way forward for the World.

“The fears I had then had no real basis,” he said, “but now I see the incredible potential to save on pesticides and improve food production; being GM free will not give Scotland a leading edge in the world.”

The situation was slightly better in England, he said, with the UK government being quietly pro genetic modification but he pointed out the politicians were too cowardly to say so.

He dismissed the weekend protest at the GM trial at Rothamsted by describing it as a complete flop: “There were less than 200 people there. Public opinion has changed.”

He added that it made no sense to have the plant breeders in Scotland working with their hands tied behind their backs in terms of limiting the technology they could use.

Too many people who would benefit from seeing the adoption of GM were afraid to speak out, he claimed, because they were afraid of losing core government funding.

“Everyone is too polite to say this but Scotland is keeping itself in the agricultural dark ages with its present policy. Everyone thinks that but while they will say that in the pub, they will not say it to the minister’s face.”

Lynas had hoped his comments would be made in the presence of Richard Lochhead, the Scottish Government’s rural affairs minister, who had, in his opening speech, made great play of the scientific base that fuelled the agricultural industry in Scotland.

Lochhead made no reference to GM in his speech but later he stated categorically that there was “no appetite for change” from the current anti-GM government views.

Scientists and research workers had a big enough workload looking at climate challenge and wider efficiencies that could be achieved in crop production, he maintained.

He accepted the GM debate would be an ongoing one but believed the GM-free label was a plus for sectors such as the Scottish seed potato industry.

He said he had been told by some growers that they would not be able to sell into some North African markets if Scotland adopted GM technology. He preferred to concentrate on the increased tonnage of seed potatoes Scotland has exported this last season, with an all-time high of 77,277 tonnes leaving these shores.

This breaks last year’s total of 76,615 tonnes, itself a record. “For generations, potatoes have been a key crop for Scotland and with Scottish seed production being worth £100 million the same is true today,” he said.