Monsanto' President bases his claim on the "company's research". Nobody else's research seems to bear that out! For more on Hugh Bribes-Galore Grant, see The Uncle Tom Award: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4987

1.UK farms "want to grow GM crops"
2.MPs' Committee Ignored by Blair on GM
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1.UK farms "want to grow GM crops"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4352871.stm

The president of US biotechnology giant Monsanto says genetically-modified crops could be grown in the UK within five to 10 years.

Hugh Grant told Radio 4's Farming Today programme that his firm's research suggests the majority of UK farmers want the chance to grow GM crops.

Following a five-year national debate, the government said last year GM crops can be grown on certain conditions.

Critics say more research is needed to determine if GM crops are safe.

Monsanto, which pioneered GM crops, announced it would close its European seed cereal business in the UK in 2003.

'Health benefits'

Mr Grant told the programme he finds the pace of change in Europe frustratingly slow and rejects the view that UK consumers are worried about the safety of GM products.

He says more than 1bn acres of GM crops have been planted around the world and farmers from China to Brazil are literally reaping the benefits.

He also insisted that GM technology could be used in future to produce a range of crops with distinct health benefits.

However, a spokeswoman for Friends of the Earth said biotechnology firms have been promising such "super crops" for years and failing to deliver and that much more research is needed into the effects of GM food.

Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett approved the growing of a single variety of GM maize - herbicide-tolerant maize - in March 2004.

But she rejected commercial cultivation of GM beet and oilseed rape - the two other GM crops involved in tests, known as the farm-scale evaluations.

'Public disapproval'

Her statement followed five years of consultation, farm-scale trials and a major survey which showed 90% of the public were against GM crops.

She said the GM maize licences would expire in October 2006, and any consent holders wishing to renew them would have to carry out scientific analysis during cultivation.

However, German company Bayer CropScience, the only firm eligible to grow herbicide-tolerant maize in the UK, pulled out of plans to cultivate it.

It blamed government conditions for making the crop "economically non-viable" because they would stall production of the maize for too long.

The next window for the GM crop companies is 2008, when Bayer CropScience will propose commercialisation of oilseed rape and Monsanto and Syngenta will be vying to get GM sugar beet approved. [British Sugar the monopoly purchaser of sugar beet in the UK have said they have no interest in GM sugar beet]
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2.Green Committee: We're Being Ignored [shortened]
By Andrew Woodcock, PA Political Correspondent
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4258477

The Government was today accused of wilfully failing to co-operate with an MPs' committee set up by Prime Minister Tony Blair himself to monitor its performance on the environment.

The Environmental Audit Committee was created in 1997, following Labour's election victory, in fulfilment of a manifesto pledge to ensure that the Government was held to account on green issues.

But its chairman, Tory MP Peter Ainsworth, today accused Government departments of adopting a dismissive approach to its work on controversial issues like genetically-modified crops and greenhouse gas emissions by aircraft.

The Government was sometimes "very resistant" to the committee's agenda and official responses to some of its reports had been "lamentable" or "very poor”š" he complained.

And he said that official information provided by departments in response the committee's inquiries was sometimes "sketchy (and) wilfully unhelpful".

Mr Ainsworth's concerns were highlighted in the annual report for 2004 of the influential House of Commons Liaison Committee, published today.

In a letter.... reproduced in today's report, Mr Ainsworth set out his complaints about the Government's behaviour in two confrontations between his committee and Whitehall departments last year.

....Last March, Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett announced her approval of the commercial cultivation of one strain of GM maize within days of the EAC producing a highly critical report unanimously advising against it. The timing of the announcement suggested Cabinet had approved the decision 24 hours before the EAC published its report after an inquiry lasting almost six months.

"The Government's response to the committee's report on GM crops was very poor," said Mr Ainsworth.

"It effectively dismissed the report without even bothering to answer several of its key points, and also deliberately misinterpreted several other points in an attempt to rubbish its conclusions and recommendations."