George Freeman MP says access to "all technology and innovation" will be essential if Europe's farmers are to remain competitive and play their part in ensuring global food production keeps pace with demand.
With the worlds population set to rise to 9 billion in our lifetimes, our generation faces a historic challenge of sustainability: to double global food supply using half as much land, and less water, energy and chemical inputs. The challenge was spelt out in no uncertain terms in the recent Foresight Report by the government chief scientific adviser, Prof Sir John Bedington.
Spoilt by the excesses of the Common Agricultural Policy, a generation of us in Europe who have grown up with butter mountains and grain surpluses and a policy concensus directed at reducing production are now in for a shock. With world demand and food prices rocketing, exacerbating regional geopolitical tensions, increasing food production is now an urgent global priority.
As Britain looks around the world for a role and a basis for a sustainable economic recovery, it seems to me that applying our world class expertise in agriculture and food science in this exploding market might be a good idea.
History suggests many reasons to be optimistic. Mankind's natural tendency to innovate usually wins out. We have extraordinary scientific and technological tools at our disposal that our forebears couldn't have imagined. In agriculture, breakthroughs in plant science and crop protection, including GM with the potential to develop crops that be grown in places and conditions impossible to cultivate today, offers enormous potential.
How bizarre it is, then, that just as the world needs our help to drive sustainable development more urgently than ever, the EU appears to have set it's face against this technology.
Of course the impact of this technology must be objectively and vigorously assessed through scientific investigation; robust controls are necessary to protect the consumer and the environment.
However, in light of the global population challenge we face, I believe it is time to reopen the debate on GM and its potential role in helping food producers respond to the 'sustainable intensification' agenda set out in the Foresight Report.
We need to move on from the limited 'yes or no' or 'right or wrong' debate, and start discussing Agricultural Biotechnology in a practical and policy-based way. It can’t afford to be the elephant in the room any longer.
The fact that many former anti-GM campaigners are changing their minds in light of the evidence and urgency of the need for new strains of crops which can be grown sustainably in the developing world should give pause for thought.
In my debate today I will examine arguments around GM, looking at the ethical dilemma of food shortages in the third world, changing consumer opinions regarding GM, current research, and the significant opportunities this sector could provide for UK growth and wealth creation.
The global market for agricultural biotechnology is valued at over £90bn and growing at 10-15 per cent annually. With developing nations such as the USA, China, Brazil and Argentina rapidly investing in the sector it would be a great shame for the UK's scientific excellence to be overlooked. Access to all available technology and innovation will be essential if Europe's farmers are to remain internationally competitive and play their part in ensuring global food production keeps pace with demand.
I look forward to hearing the interventions of my colleagues and hope this will be the start of a new and more balanced debate in this Parliament about this vital topic.
We cannot sit on our hands any longer.
has been Conservative MP for Mid Norfolk since 2001
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