Country life
Listen up, Prince Charles
Leanda de Lisle
Dr Evil is stalking the earth once more — and not just in the world of Austin Pow- ers. We are told he is running Monsanto and is out to create a terminator gene that will leave him in charge of the world's seed supplies. But all the evidence suggests that if anyone is out to deny choice to the farm- ers it is, in fact, those at the extreme end of the environmental movement.
Over the last year we have heard a great deal about genetically modified crops, but been told very little. Married to a farmer, I have been impressed to learn that an acre of GM rape would provide all the insulin we need in Britain and dismayed to discov- er that companies are developing crops tol- erant of herbicide. But the public debate has lumped all GM crops together under the label 'Frankenstein foods'. 'Who knows where they will lead?' is the cry — which is a fair point in the absence of trials.
However, it is notable that those who cry Where will they lead?' loudest are exactly those who are making it impossible to carry out the trials which might answer the ques- tion. I confess I have some sympathy with their point of view. I share their visceral fear of people with strange and brilliant minds, working away in their laboratories like creepy schoolboys, determined to dis- cover how this works, or what would hap- pen if you did that. But it seems sensible actually to take a look at what the scientists are doing before their work is utterly con- demned.
Even a terminator gene might not be quite as bad as it sounds. Those who prac- tise integrated crop management or who farm organically rotate their crops. Howev- er, even the most modern combine will leave some of the last year's crop behind. Thus you will find that yesterday's wheat has seeded itself among today's beans. If it failed to do so farmers would require fewer chemicals or poisons than they use now.
Back in the Middle Ages, blacksmiths were encouraged to mix and melt metals to make broad swords, but women were drowned and burned for using simple herbal medicines. As we approach the year 2000 we appear equally arbitrary in our judgments as to how we should and should not use and manipulate the natural world. It is as if we still fear offending God, although that God is no longer a Christian one.
Since the 18th century, the universe has come to be seen as the repository of all that is good and true. Man, who has no soul, is no more than a beast feeding off this planet. As such some have believed, and others still believe, that only the fittest among us should survive. During the first half of this century and much of the last, the peoples of the West fought wars to carve up the earth for themselves and destroy or enslave those who they felt belonged to 'inferior races'. Since then we have preferred to concentrate on eliminat- ing undesirables before they are even born. We abort our disabled children and pay for brown-skinned women to be sterilised. But there is remarkably little interest in supporting any science that might enable those other than ourselves to live long and happy lives. For Prince Charles, any sug- gestion that GM crops might help feed the world is blackmail. In a world fit for kings there is no room for Brazilians breeding like rats and threatening to choke nice peo- ple in eco-friendly homes by cutting down the rainforest.
Besides, like many of his fellow Greens, Prince Charles doesn't want any unhelpful distractions from the real issue, which is that GM crops on trial in this country might cross-pollinate with his precious organic produce. But, listen up. Potatoes cannot cross-pollinate in Britain, and one that has been genetically altered to make it immune to blight could be a great gift to the world. It would be a pity if, in this age of unreason, we were never given the chance to find out.
Petronella I4/5)att's column returns next week.
If the Wright Bros. were working today, government regulations would require them to provide a lavatory.'
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