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Mar 22, 2017

UK royals' sibling rivalry? Princess Anne says GMO crops have benefits

Britain's Princess Anne may have sparked some royal sibling rivalry after saying genetically modified crops had real benefits to offer, putting her at odds with her older brother Charles who says they would be an environmental disaster. In an interview with BBC radio, Anne said she would grow GMO crops on her farming estates, adding she doubted that the technology had many downsides. That view contrasts sharply with that of heir-to-the-throne Charles, who has long been an ardent campaigner for organic produce, once warning the widespread use of GM crops would "cause the biggest disaster environmentally of all time". "GM is one of those things that divides people," Anne, whose title is the Princess Royal, told the BBC's "Farming Today" program. "Surely if we are going to be better at producing food of the right value, then we have to accept that genetic technology ... is going to be part of that," she said in the interview to be aired on Thursday. Read the article.