• a poll in 2003 showed that about 70% of UK farmers would like to make up their own minds about whether or not to plant GM crops, not have someone else make up their minds for them.

• food processors, manufacturers and retailers usually claim to be neutral: "If people will buy, we will sell". How they decide is not clear.

• environmentalists fall into several categories depending on their motivations. Some are very anti-GM, some mildly so, some mildly pro and yet others very pro.

• supermarkets are like the rest of the trade: they will sell what they think their customers will buy

• The Government is ultimately responsible for regulatory procedures and practices as well as for deciding, in an EU context, whether or not commercial cultivation of GM crops should take place in the UK. Many factors are involved in Government decision-making. In spite of attempts to discredit the Government for its handling of crises like BSE, its regulatory machinery for new drugs, crops and crop chemicals is amongst the best in the world. BSE was not a regulatory issue but it has been used to undermine trust in the Government’s regulatory procedures.

Novel foods enter the UK diet through supermarkets which are highly regulated, through health food shops, and in open markets which are least regulated. The regulatory process is governed by the Food Act, by a series of EU regulations and also depends on advice from independents, food inspectors and many other local authority checks. So there is an extensive network to protect the public and the GM foods that were approved for sale in the UK went though all these with particular care.

The same is true of GM crops which have a strict regulatory regime. So Government took all reasonable steps to protect the British public but we live in a free world, where people have a right to choose for themselves, so there was no reason to restrict. Indeed many argue that Government is already too intrusive into our lives.

The UK Government is responsible for the future well-being of the UK public, for maintaining employment and for assuring that new technology can be used properly for the benefit of the UK population, and that means encouraging safe new technologies. Since there was never any reason to treat GM foods and crops as either evil or unsafe or dangerous in themselves, the proper normal procedures were followed. Government must remain neutral and protect; that is what they have done.

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