Local people in a mass protest at the Narmada dam project As the government announces the sites for next year's farm-size trials for GM foods, VERONICA FAGAN examines some of the issues posed by the debates on genetic modification.
Is a socialist I am in A favour of scientific progress. But I guess in the last twenty •years, I - along with many other people - have become more aware that I need to examine what that statement really means in the context of the real world we live in.
It's a world in which research and development into new areas of science are driven by the hunt for greater and greater profits lives. That also means that short gains in terms of profit term come before long term needs in terms of resources - so corporations and governments are prepared to destroy whole eco-systems that have taken thousands of years to build up, like rain forests.
Its a world in which basic precautions in terms of health and safety are thrown to the wind in this quest - as the ghastly stories about what happened at Porton Down which came out in the press recently remind us all too graphically.
Similarly while I am not qualified to assess the evidence on how BSE became CJD, it is clear that diseases are jumping the species barrier and this is something that needs to worry us all - certainly it threatens us all.
And if the government's own Food Safety advisory Committee is telling us that the high use of antibiotics for farm animals. is something that needs to be stopped, then there be strong evidence of this.
The Committee, reporting in August, expressed particular concern about the use of synthetic antibiotics that are used in humans to treat E-coli, typhoid and salmonella and the use of growth promoters.
Our response to all of this should not be a Luddite, antiprogressive one. Rather it needs to be one in which we demand that investment and enquiry is driven by the real needs of people.
To ensure that this what hap-