GM row: MPs skewer ‘Luddite’ Charles

Fourteen years after the Prince of Wales was roundly criticised by the government of the day for venturing his opinions on modern architecture in Britain ("monstrous carbuncles on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend") it looks as though he's done it again. Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs lashed out at Prince Charles today after he criticised GM foods during an interview with the Daily Telegraph. He accused multi-national companies of conducting a "gigantic experiment with nature and the whole of humanity which has gone seriously wrong". He went on: "If that is the future, count me out," and added that relying on "gigantic corporations" for food would result in "absolute disaster".

Downing Street has allowed 54 GM crop trials in Britain since 2000 and there is strong pressure for more GM products because of rising food costs and shortages. Labour MP Des Turner, a member of the Commons all-party Science Committee, was dismissive of the Prince's comments. "Prince Charles has got a way of getting things absolutely wrong," he said. "It's an entirely Luddite attitude to simply reject them (GM foods) out of hand."

Phil Willis MP, another member of the Science Committee, was equally scathing: "While I admire Prince Charles's commitment to environmental causes, his lack of scientific understanding and his willingness to condemn millions of people to starvation in areas like sub-Saharan Africa is absolutely bewildering." Willis claimed that without GM foods "we would not be able to feed a tenth of the world's population".

The Prince, who runs his own farm at Highgrove in Gloucestershire, on organic principles, thundered in the Telegraph: "If they think this is the way to go... we (will) end up with millions of small farmers all over the world being driven off their land into unsustainable, unmanageable, degraded and dysfunctional conurbations of unmentionable awfulness."

The forthrightness of his remarks was bound to stir controversy - both about the issue of GM crops and also about his right as a member of the royal family to issue such a strong edict on a politically sensitive issue. Said former biology lecturer and Labour MP Ian Gibson: "Prince Charles should stick to his royal role rather than spout off about something which he has clearly got wrong."