The UK public’s concern over genetically modified food has softened in the past decade, according to a new survey.
A quarter of Britons are now unconcerned by GM food, compared with 17% nearly a decade ago, when supermarkets debated whether to introduce GM products following widespread public opposition and attacks on GM test fields in the 1990s. The number of people “concerned” about GM has also fallen by 5%, said the Populus survey, commissioned by the British Science Association and published on Friday.
The poll comes as the EU prepares to vote on a Danish-led proposal to allow member states to ban the cultivation of GM crops on a country-by-country basis, with the UK concerned that the proposal will not achieve its aims.
British political support for a new push on GM is currently at a high watermark, with both agriculture minister Jim Paice telling farmers in January that GM crops could massively help food production, and Labour’s shadow environment minister, Mary Creagh, calling for more money for GM research. Caroline Spelman, the environment secretary, said last month that growing GM crops was likely to be considered as part of the solution to the drought currently engulfing much of south-east England. In her first interview when appointed secretary of state in 2010, she signalled the government would be pro-GM, saying “the principle of GM technology is [OK] if used well.”
But in 2003, a nationwide debate involving 650 public meetings on whether to introduce GM crops to the UK showed more than half of the population never wanted to see the crops grown in the UK. The backlash put a brake on hopes by biotech companies and then-prime minister Tony Blair to exploit the technology in the UK.
The new polling shows opposition has weakened, with 15.2% of 2,058 people being “fairly unconcerned” now compared with 6% of 1,363 citizens in 2003. The “very unconcerned” count has remained largely the same, while the proportion of “very concerned” people has dropped from 23.8% to 17.2%.