Whether Nick Clegg feeds GM food to his kids or not is irrelevant | Tracey Brown

When it comes to science-based policy, politicians ignorant of the evidence should avoid discussing how they raise their kidsThe juddering express train of a science-y question came down the line on Nick Clegg's LBC radio call-in on Thursday. Nick aspires to being "science-based" on subjects like GM, but it wasn't just the evidence they wanted: do you feed GM food to your CHILDREN?Science, evidence, risk, children; we have seen this dangerous test of science policy before. John Gummer feeding his daughter a burger during the BSE crisis, public health official William Stewart worrying about his grandchildren using mobile phones, and Leo Blair's MMR vaccination.Clegg's response has made surprisingly confident headlines, declaring that his children do not eat GM food, despite the fact that what he said was nothing much at all. His answer was garbled. As he struggled to avoid invading his own privacy or saying either "yes" or "no" to the simple question - rule number one for politicians on the radio – every half remembered thought triggered by the word "GM" came tumbling out.Nick recalled that some people have concerns about contamination between GM and non-GM crops, and in doing so he revealed that he's not really sure what GM food is. Whereas GM crops have different traits and the plants behave differently from non-GM plants, the resulting GM food is indistinguishable from non-GM food.He said he takes a "science-based precautionary approach", which he thought was "what the Eu...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Comment Nick Clegg Farming Genetics Biology guardian.co.uk GM Politics Food science Environment Agriculture Source Type: news