Beddington's GM call to ministers

Thursday, March 19, 2009

The need to increase global food production by 50 per cent before 2030 in order to cope with huge population growth means ministers should reconsider GM technology and an increase in agricultural research budgets, the government's chief scientific adviser Professor John Beddington has claimed, writes Dean Carroll.

International political leaders agreed to targets to boost food production by 50 per cent by 2030 and then by 50 per cent again before 2050 – to cope with a world population expected to rise to nine billion. But critics have suggested that no meaningful policies have yet been put in place despite the current global population over-consuming to the equivalent of three planets. Giving evidence to the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Beddington admitted that this trend was not sustainable.

"The challenge for agriculture is to grow more food on less land because of urbanisation, climate change and so on with less water, using less fertiliser and less pesticides than we have historically done," he told the panel of MPs. "My belief is that to solve the problem we have to look to science and technology."

The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) has actually reduced its agricultural research budget to just £29m. Beddington indicated that he would be raising the issue with Defra ministers.

"There has been a decline in the Defra budget for food. That is unfortunate and I think it should be reversed," he said. It marks the first major disagreement between Beddington and ministers since he took up the post a year ago.

On GM foods, Beddington called for "a sensible scientific debate" that evaluated both the potential and the risks.