NOTE: Lord Sainsbury sounds reasonable when pitched by the BBC's sycophantic Pallab Ghosh (item 2), until you get down to who exactly Lord Sainsbury is suggesting should conduct the new GM "debate" he's after - the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences.

This is a total give away, as it's hard to think of two institutions with a worse track record (or more senior players with powerful vested interests) in relation to GM.
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=Peter_Lachmann

David Sainsbury's own record of undue influence is equally disturbing. And now that all the leverage he bought from Blair and New Labour is spent, there's no reason for his undue influence to continue any longer, despite his massive wealth and his considerable investments - both "charitable" and entrepreneurial - in GM.
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php?title=David_Sainsbury
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Ex-minister seeks GM crop debate
UKPA, 14 September 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hc1pcUZup29ALewUWFd4ZvzR9dcQ

A former science minister has called for the debate on the cultivation of genetically modified crops to be reopened, warning that it would be "very foolish" to rule out use of the technology in the UK.

Lord Sainsbury of Turville, who served in Tony Blair's Department for Trade and Industry from 1998 to 2006, said earlier discussions - which saw GM crops branded "Frankenstein foods" by opponents - lacked scientific evidence and was "not very productive".

He warned that the UK risked being left behind by countries like India and China which are planting millions of acres of GM crops, and said the technology could play a "vitally important" role in feeding a global population predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050.

Various types of GM crop plant have been grown for research and development purposes at a number of field sites in England since 1993, but there has been no commercial cultivation of GM crops.

Development of GM farming in Europe has been held back by EU legislation requiring collective approval of any commercial cultivation, though there were moves in Brussels earlier this year to hand back decision-making powers on the issue to individual states.

Lord Sainsbury will make his plea for a reassessment of GM in a speech at the British Science Association festival in Birmingham.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I think the time has come to have again the debate about GM crops, because it is 12 years since we had that last very fraught and, I think, not very productive debate about it.

"Twelve years on, we have got 30 million acres across the world of GM crops, we have got pretty much all the cotton industry in India and China on those kinds of crops and of course people are now beginning to think seriously about what is the major problem we face in the world, which is how we feed 9 billion people in 2050.

"We need now to have the debate again, because in the last debate there was not proper scientific evidence put on the table. We need that scientific evidence because GM crops can play an important part in this big problem."

Lord Sainsbury acknowledged that many of the ambitious claims made by the companies behind the technology for the benefits of GM had yet to deliver results, but said that, in time, he expected the genetically-altered crops to have as large an impact as computers in "changing the way we live".
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Science needs a 'better dialogue with public'
Pallab Ghosh, Science correspondent
BBC News, 14 September 2010
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11292286

Lord Sainsbury (AFP) In the past, the public has felt as if they are being forced to accept changes, says Lord Sainsbury

The scientific community should have a more grown up dialogue with the public, according to former UK Science Minister Lord Sainsbury.

He said that distrust of scientific ideas was not due to a failure by the public to understand the issues.

Instead, it was because they felt they were being forced to accept changes they had not been consulted over and seemed to offer them no benefit.

Lord Sainsbury is to speak at the British Science Association festival.

The festival runs from the 14-19 September at Aston University in Birmingham, UK and Lord Sainsbury will talk in his capacity as president of the British Science Association.

He will refute suggestions that people in Britain are anti-science.

But according to Lord Sainsbury, there is concern that the pace of current scientific advance is too fast for government to keep up with through effective oversight and regulation.
Continue reading the main story

"When I was first Minister of Science and Innovation there was an initiative called the 'public understanding of science'," he explained.

"This was based on the assumption that if people knew more about science they would automatically look more favourably on science. But unfortunately this is not the case."

A study done a number of years ago of the then 15 European Union countries found that those nations scoring lowest on scientific understanding were in general the most unequivocally enthusiastic.

"We should not be surprised by this finding. A good education in science should lead people to ask questions about the impact of science," according to Lord Sainsbury.

He also rejects the view given by some scientists that the public's distrust of new ideas and technologies is due to people not understanding risk.

He said: "[The public] understands risk all too well and if there is no benefit to them then why take any risk at all, however small?"

"I remember Lord May saying at the time when the row about GM products was at its height: 'As soon as a GM product is invented, which if you take a tablespoon of it each morning, you will be slim and witty all day, this whole issue will go away'."
Honest debate

What is important, according to Lord Sainsbury, is for government to assess the risks of new technologies effectively, and to keep the public properly informed.

"People become very angry if they feel that the government is not doing this job properly or is in any way hiding the facts from them."

According to Lord Sainsbury, public debate on stem cells is an instance which has been handled well.

He said that the scientific community had identified potential problems and ethical issues well in advance and had engaged the public in what he called an open and honest debate.

Conversely, with GM crops, the technology had already been foisted on the public and a debate ensued after it had been rejected.

"To improve the level of that debate I also think that the Government should now ask, say, the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences to review openly and publicly the current position on GM technology so that the Government and the public can make up their minds on this issue on the basis of the best scientific advice.

"And if this is done I believe it will be seen that plant biotechnology is another case of a new technology which can help the world solve one of its most difficult problems."