Bad weather prompting more British farmers to favour GM use

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/04/bad-weather-farmers-gm?intcmp=122

The extreme weather of 2012 has turned British farmers on to genetically modified crops, with calls from farming leaders to start using the technology as a way to help combat the effects of climate change.

England's wettest year on record, and the UK's second wettest, which had begun with one of the worst droughts for decades, has persuaded an increasing number of farmers that the development of crop varieties with engineered resistance to extreme weather conditions is now a priority. Farming groups are in favour of the move, and many individual farmers now want to explore the use of the controversial techniques, according to delegates at the Oxford Farming Conference.

"If the UK is sets itself outside the global market [in which many countries are pursuing GM crops] then we would become fossilised into an old-fashioned way of farming," Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers' Union, told the Guardian. "The majority of our members are aware of the real risk of becoming globally uncompetitive because of avoiding using GM."

Kendall pointed to the severe problems that potato and tomato growers have had with blight, as the wet weather has encouraged the spread of the disease. "If you could have something that was blight-resistant, that would be a huge improvement," he said. He argued it would be more environmentally friendly to use GM food and thus avoid the problem of losing large quantities of food to spoilage from such diseases.

[Ilsa]

1. Sounds like UK consumers don't want them, though.

Thom Hartmann was discussing GM foods recently, and it sounds like they have nasty intestinal health side effects, including causing new food allergies, immune system problems, etc.

[Nihil]

2. This is going to bite the farmers in the arse ...

... unfortunately the good ones as well as the bad (GMO-supporting) ones.

There has been a significant shift to supporting British farm produce over
imported in all supermarkets across the last few years but unless there is
a serious re-think on this (or a *totally* trustworthy labelling mechanism)
then there will be a "Fuck-it" moment when people realise that if this
produce is no more reliable, why make the effort and/or pay more?

Fortunately - as highlighted in the article - the retailers associations are
more in tune with the British people and are keen to retain the GMO-free
produce and only entertain the idea of GMO sales if clearly marked as such
(which, they know, will be the kiss of death as far as 90% of the customer
base is concerned).