As every fan of Monty Python knows, sketches can become too absurd for their own good. That's what seemed to be happening to Britain's great genetically modified food saga earlier this week when it emerged that scientists at the nation's biggest biotech company may have been breaking the letter of the law when they merrily tucked into tomatoes that had been genetically modified. The current heated debate about genetically-modified foods is understandable.
Consumers appear wary about food safety.
It sometimes seems that there is a new food scare almost every other month. And, after BSE, it is no surprised that food safety is high on the political and media agenda. But the debate about GM foods has not really begun, at least not one based on science. During the early 1980s and continuing to 1989, I was chairman of Monsanto Co.'s Biotechnology Strategy Committee. Monsanto had clearly identified biotechnology as a major corporate objective.