The Duke of Edinburgh seems to have given his seal of approval to the GM industry by playing down fears about the products. The Duke's comments echo those of his daughter, Princess Anne, in an interview she gave two days ago for The Grocer magazine. But both are at odds with the views of Prince Charles, a keen supporter of organic farming, who recently gave a lecture in which he warned of the dangers of playing God with nature. The introduction of foreign pests, such as the grey squirrel, had done more damage to the environment than genetically modified crops would ever cause, he argued.
People are worried about genetically modified organisms getting into the environment.
It is because of our inability or refusal to accept the existence of a guiding hand that nature has come to be regarded as a system that can be engineered for our own convenience, or as a nuisance to be evaded and manipulated, and in which anything that happens can be 'fixed' by technology and human ingenuity. This means being careful to use science to understand how nature works - not to change what nature is, as we do when genetic manipulation seeks to transform the process of biological evolution into something altogether different. The idea that the different parts of the natural world are connected through an intricate system of checks and balances which we disturb at our peril is all too easily dismissed as no longer relevant. I happen to believe that if a fraction of the money currently being invested in developing genetically manipulated crops were applied to understanding and improving traditional systems of agriculture, which have stood the all-important test of time, the results would be remarkable. I'm sorry, but life isn't that simple.