Wednesday December 30th 1998. Paul Brown Enviroment Correspondent.
Restaurants press for a ban on genetic crops.
The country's most prestigious restaurants are calling for the Government to impose a five year ban on the use of genetically modified food while further tests are carried out. Celebrated chefs such as Nico Ladenis, of Chez Nico at Ninety Park Lane, London, and Raymond Blanc of Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons,in Great Milton, Oxfordshire have joined a campaign calling for the ban. Chez Nico, which has three Michelin stars and scores ten out of ten for cooking from the 1999 Good Food Guide, leads a list of the best restaurants, which regard genetically modified food with distaste. Nineteen of these back Friends of the Earth's campaign for a five year ban on genetically modified food, two failed to answer and only two said that they do not support a ban. Among the 10 out of 10's is Altnaharrie Inn in Ullapool, Highland region,which can be approached only by boat across Loch Broom and where the chef Gunn Erickson cooks without mains electricity.