UK Peer Speaks Out on GM Crops

Lib Dem Lord Dick Taverne Says Biotech Crops Create Environmental Benefits


ST. LOUIS, MO -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 01/18/06 -- Lord Taverne -- Dick
Taverne QC -- currently a member of the House of Lords' Science and
Technology Committee, speaks out on the proven benefits of genetically
modified (GMO) crops following a decade of commercial use on more than
one billion acres worldwide.


"I am a keen environmentalist. Environmentalism is a very, very
important cause. But it's got to be based on evidence," says Lord
Taverne, who expounds on those views in a new video at
biotech-gmo.com. "I became more and more interested in the whole
question of genetic modification because that, in a sense, has been
the central battlefield on which the anti-science and science forces
have locked horns."


"The evidence is fairly clear on certain points," Lord Taverne, a
former member of Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, continues.
"First of all, there can be no doubt that so far there is no evidence
of any damage to health -- any danger to health. It's reduced the use
of pesticides. It produces greater productivity. And, if it reduces
the amount of farmland you have to use, it can actually be very
beneficial to biodiversity . . . very beneficial to the environment."


Lord Taverne is founder of the charity Sense About Science which
promotes an evidence-based approach to scientific issues and the
public understanding of scientific research. He is the author of The
March of Unreason: Science Democracy and the New Fundamentalism.


Lord Taverne's exclusive interview can be found at Monsanto's
"Conversations About Plant Biotechnology" website:
www.monsanto.com/biotech-gmo