THE PRINCESS ROYAL rowed back on her
controversial support for genetically modified food last
night, creating a three-way split within the Royal Family
over the technology.
Princess Anne argued that "the jury was still out" on GM
foods, a pronounced qualification of the views she
expressed in an interview with The Grocer at the
weekend. Her retreat leaves the Duke of Edinburgh as the
royal champion of genetic modification and the Prince of
Wales its dedicated opponent.
The Duke brought open the conflict of views within his
family when he said that genetic modification of food was
no different from selective breeding of animals and plants,
and that the introduction of foreign pests such as the grey
squirrel had done far more harm to the environment than
would ever be caused by GM crops.
He appeared to have his daughter on his side, when she
was reported as saying: "Man has been tinkering with
food production and plant development for such a long
time that it's a bit cheeky suddenly to get nervous about it
when fundamentally you are doing much the same thing. It
is a huge oversimplification to say all farming ought to be
organic or there should be no GM foods."
But yesterday the Princess told nutritionists that her open
mind should not be confused with an endorsement, and
she was clearly irritated that she had been seen as a GM
zealot.
"I was away at the weekend at sea - no television, no
newspapers - so I was intrigued to find I had caused a bit
of a storm when I came back," she told the Institute of
Child Health in London. "I never endorse anything, I have
never done that.
"As far as GM anything is concerned, it seems to me
there's a spirit about which is if you don't condemn it, you
must condone it. That seems to me to be a wholly
unreasonable attitude.
"It is a subject of great interest and the jury is still out. I,
for one, won't be making any statements or making up my
mind unless the British Nutrition Foundation tells me. They
haven't told me anything yet."
The Princess is also known to be interested in organic
farming and is planning to convert part of her Gatcombe
Park estate to organic crops.
Buckingham Palace denied that the interventions from the
Duke and Princess Anne over recent days were
"deliberately orchestrated" to counter Prince Charles's
anti-GM stance, articulated most recently in his Reith
Lecture when he said: "If a fraction of the money being
invested in developing genetically manipulated crops were
applied to understanding and improving traditional systems
of agriculture which have stood the test of time, the results
would be remarkable."
It was clear, however, that the Duke was fully aware of
the interest his pro-GM salvo had generated, though
Palace sources emphasised that he did not wish to
elaborate "for the moment".
Supporters of the Duke, who is also this year's president
of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, say that he
has heard first-hand of the frustration felt by many farmers
and landowners who wish to test the new technology and
reduce the use of pesticides.
The Duke is keen to spearhead proper debate and is to
accompany the Queen to the Royal Cornwall Agricultural
Show at Wadebridge tomorrow, providing another
occasion when he could be questioned about his views.
Ministers were clearly delighted with the Duke's remarks,
though no one was prepared to go on the record to say
so, as they struggle to find farmers willing to participate in
the official trials of GM crops. The Ministry of Defence is
now having to ask its tenant farmers to take part and one
in West Raynham, Norfolk, has already planted fields of
GM sugar beet. Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, is to
confirm the new policy today in a statement on the future
blueprint for the defence estates.
Environmentalists were enraged that the ministry was
becoming the first institutional landowner - it has 555
tenants farming more than 100,000 acres - to take part in
the GM trials and the decision is certain to be raised in the
Commons tomorrow when the Conservatives launch an
attack on the Government's handling of the recent
GM-contaminated seed fiasco and the year-long delay in
appointing a new GM advisory body.
George Dunn, chief executive of the Tenant Farmers'
Association, advised farmers to think very carefully about
taking part in the GM trials before signing a contract. He
said that there was a loophole in the law which could
allow a landlord to seek compensation for a drop in land
value.
"I am advising that tenants should ask for specific
permission from landlords. It is possible that supermarkets
will not take crops from land that has been planted with
GM crops, for example."
The Crown Estates allows farmers to choose their own
crops, but so far no farmer has come forward to take part
in the GM trials.
It has also stipulated in new tenancy agreements that
farmers must ask permission of the landlord.
The Duchy of Cornwall and the National Trust have
informed their tenant farmers, however, that they must be
told about any such plan as it could have serious
consequences for the value of the land.
~*~
Duke's 'gaffe' was not an accident (UK Times)
BY ANDREW PIERCE
WHEN the gaffe-prone Duke of Edinburgh makes
headlines it is usually because he has opened his mouth
and put his foot in it.
Prince Philip's comments on genetically modified food,
however, were not the impetuous remarks of an irascible
patriarch a year short of his 80th birthday. They were part
of a careful intervention from a father who thinks that his
son - whom he has never really understood - has got his
facts badly wrong.
Not only was it a considered intervention, it was a
concerted one for it came only 24 hours after the Princess
Royal, in an interview with The Grocer magazine,
scorned the increasing calls for a ban on GM foods led by
her brother.
Both father and daughter knew that their remarks would
be seized upon as the latest division between the warring
Windsors, but they still went ahead. Prince Philip, who is
fully aware of the impact of his off-the-cuff remarks, even
had the chance to withdraw from the controversy.
The Prince used an invitation-only lecture by the Chief
Rabbi at Windsor Castle to speak out. When asked if he
objected to being quoted, he smiled and said: "See what
you can make of them."
The result succeeded, at a stroke, in knocking Prince
Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, who were basking in
the glow of approving publicity, off all the front pages.
Having so blatantly disagreed with his son, and allowed
the publication of his comments, Prince Philip cannot have
been surprised by the resulting impression of a family at
war. Nor would he have been gravely unsettled.
Relations have never been easy with his eldest son. Prince
Philip was horrified by Prince Charles's admission of
adultery in a television interview, and he was conspicuous
by his absence from the lunch at Highgrove on Saturday at
which the Queen finally met Mrs Parker Bowles. It was
one of the most important royal developments since
Diana, Princess of Wales, died. The Duke was at a
pre-arranged carriage driving event.
The Prince of Wales has learnt not to be unduly provoked
by his father and a dignified silence was maintained at St
James's Palace yesterday. There were, however, signs of
exasperation as no one could recall that his father had
shown even the slightest interest in GM foods before even
when he had benn given a tailor-made opportunity.
A small crop of GM grain was on display when Prince
Philip opened the Royal Show at Stoneleigh in
Warwickshire in 1998. In a speech about agricultural
production, he pointedly did not refer to GM crops, which
his eldest son argued had taken mankind into the
decision-making realms that properly belong to God.
If Prince Philip's intervention was unexpected, Princess
Anne's might have been anticipated. She is known in royal
circles to take a different line from her brother on the
capacity of GM foods to feed the starving - a
consequence of her work with Save the Children - but the
timing of her remarks set the trowels rattling in the
Highgrove garden.
Anne's motive to speak as forcefully as she did had as
much to do with her amour-propre as concern for the
starving. The Princess Royal's interview with The Grocer
was conducted about two weeks ago when the Prince of
Wales was being feted for spending a week on official
duties in Scotland for the first time. The Princess Royal,
who spends at least three days each month on official
engagements north of the border but without such public
acknowledgement, was irritated by the press coverage of
her brother's rare Scottish sojourn. She was tempted to
pull the tartan rug out from under the Pretender to her
Scottish credentials.
Anne's expression of surprise yesterday that she had
inadvertently triggered "a storm" over GM food, was also
met by diplomatic silence at St James's Palace.
No one said it, but the suspicion was left hanging in the air
that having primed the bomb at the weekend Princess
Anne was attempting to wipe her fingerprints from the
detonator.
Few royal observers are surprised that the Duke of
Edinburgh is on the same side as his daughter. When he
surveys his family he sees an eldest son whom he regards
as an incurable romantic who talks to plants, a second
who lives happily with his dreaded former wife, and a
third who could not stand the pace of military life and
dropped out of the Royal Marines to surround himself
with theatre luvvies. But in the hard-working, no-nonsense
Princess Anne he sees another of the stoical Windsor
women who have given backbone to the men over the
years. In some ways, he sees Princess Anne as the son he
never had.