1.Letters re: Charles targets GM crop giants in fiercest attack yet
2.Prince Charles Appeals Indian Farmers to Join Organic Club

EXTRACT: "The Prince of Wales has every scientific as well as social, ethical and moral justification for rejecting GM crops as a way to meet the world's food needs." - Dr. Michael Antoniou (item 1)
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1.Letters re: Charles targets GM crop giants in fiercest attack yet
Independent on Sunday, 12 October 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/iiosi-letters-emails--texts-12-octo ber-2008-958587.html

Prince Charles's assertions that suicides in India have been exacerbated by the introduction of GM are gratuitous and deeply worrying ("Charles targets GM crop giants in fiercest attack yet", 5 October). As Geoffrey Lean rightly points out, suicides were occurring long before GM crops were introduced, and we cannot condone using the tragic situation faced by some farmers in India for political point-scoring by NGOs.

The reality is that genetically modified crops are already helping over 12 million farmers around the world by delivering more consistent yields of higher quality crops. The vast majority of these farmers are resource-poor growers with small plots of land whose lives can be significantly improved through GM technology.

Prince Charles should ensure that he looks to both the science and the facts before making such rash and inflammatory statements.

Dr Julian Little
Agricultural biotechnology council
London WC1

The Prince of Wales has every scientific as well as social, ethical and moral justification for rejecting GM crops as a way to meet the world's food needs. GM crop technology is a crude and imprecise process that always disrupts natural plant host gene functions with unpredictable and unknown consequences. It is therefore not surprising to find that GM crops have failed to deliver on their promises of improved yields. There already exist numerous underexploited, highly nutritious, versatile and tasty crops such as African rice, finger and pearl millet, fonio and tef that are naturally adapted to grow on marginal land and under harsh conditions and which can meet world food requirements as the ravages of climate change take a deeper hold.

If new crop varieties are needed, then traditional plant cross-breeding augmented with the biotechnology tool of Marker Assisted Selection (gene mapping), to guide and accelerate this process is a safe and more powerful way forward. MAS helps us to work with rather than against nature's functioning as the Prince of Wales generally suggests, and can produce new varieties of crops with genetically complex properties such as enhanced nutrition and taste, pest or blight resistance, drought resistance, salt tolerance and higher yields, which is currently beyond a GM approach.

Dr Michael Antoniou
King's College, London School of Medicine, London SE1
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2.Prince Charles Appeals Indian Farmers to Join Organic Club
MedIndia, October 11 2008
http://www.medindia.net/news/Prince-Charles-Appeals-Indian-Farmers-to-Join-Organ ic-Club-42803-1.htm

Prince Charles of UK has appealed to the Indian farmers to adopt organic farming, with a view to mitigate the ongoing climate change.

According to a report in Environmental News Network, Charles said that worldwide organic farming has proved to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the extent of 35 percent, both directly and indirectly.

The Prince of Wales delivered the statement in the Albert Howard lecture to an Indian audience through video-conferencing.

He negated the myth that turning back to organic farming would result in lowering production and productivity.

Charles said that worldwide experiences have shown that it has lead to increased production and productivity.

The ecological gains were enormous with lesser use of water, increased soil fertility, environment free from chemical contamination and disease-free health for farmers.

According to Charles, organic farming was in the interests of smallholders.

He was disappointed with the unfortunate fact that chemical agriculture, which was about 100-year old, has come to be known as “conventional agriculture”, while the fact remains that it was industrial agriculture.

He also criticized the genetically modified crops as not capable of resolving the food security issue.

“There are reports of GM crops causing health and environmental hazards. We want the world to be GM-free,” he said.

He said that there was a growing market for organic food as consumers were gradually becoming aware of its benefit.

Source-ANI
SPH/SK