London, Aug 14 (IANS) Prince Charles, who was Thursday slammed by
scientists for an outburst against genetically modified (GM) food and
the Indian Green Revolution, has major plans to market his organic
food products in India.
Two months ago, the chief executive of the Prince's Duchy Originals
line of organic products announced plans to launch the brand in India
and the US as part of a five-year strategy to quadruple annual
turnover from 50 million pounds to 200 million pounds ($93-373 million).
Andrew Baker said the company hoped to establish a presence in India
by the end of the year.
'We've also taken steps to establish a Duchy presence in India linked
to the Prince's Bhumi Vardaan Foundation, established to help the
poorer farmers of the Punjab,' Baker said.
'Our intention is to establish Duchy India as a commercial vehicle for
the organic produce of farms supported by the foundation,' he added.
Charles, in an interview published Wednesday, said India's Green
Revolution 'worked for a short time but now the price is being paid'.
'I have been to the Punjab where you have seen the disasters that have
taken place as a result of the over-demand on irrigation because of
the hybrid seeds and grains that have been produced which demand huge
amounts of water.
'The water table has disappeared. They have huge problems with water
level, with pesticide problems, and complications are now coming home
to roost,' Charles said.
The comments by Charles, who is an anti-GM campaigner, highlight his
often-uneasy relationship with multinational supermarket chains and
came a day after Britain's largest retailer, Tesco, announced a 60
million pound investment plan in the Indian retail sector.
Last year, Sainsbury's - another large British supermarket chain whose
owner is a GM enthusiast - dropped Charles' organic farm as a supplier
of carrots, saying his vegetables did not meet the supermarket's
standards.
Meanwhile, scientists and politicians Thursday rounded on the heir to
the British throne, saying his remarks were ill-informed, bewildering
and unhelpful.
Julian Little, chairman of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, an
industry group, linked the Prince's views to his interest in organic
farming.
'The Prince is an organic farmer and it's in his interest that organic
farming works,' he said. 'There are millions of other farmers whose
role is producing high-quality, affordable food, and they need all the
tools that are available, of which GM is one.'
Phil Willis, chairman of Britain's all-party parliamentary science
committee, said scientific farming had helped feed billions of people.
'His lack of scientific understanding and his willingness to condemn
millions of people to starvation in areas like sub-Saharan Africa is
absolutely bewildering,' he said.
'The reality is that without the development of science in farming, we
would not be able to feed a tenth of the world population, which will
exceed nine billion by 2050,' Willis added.
Alison Smith, professor of Plant Biochemistry at the John Innes Centre
in Norwich, Britain's leading plant science institute, criticised what
she called the Prince's 'ill-informed, one-sided and generally
negative' remarks.
'He seems to be ranting about GM crops, urbanisation, globalisation
and even hybrid plants. He is inflating fears instead of contributing
to reasoned debate.'
However, a spokesman for the international NGO Friends of the Earth
supported Charles, said: 'Prince Charles has hit the nail on the head
about the damaging false solution that GM crops present. GM crops will
not solve the food crisis - and forging ahead with an industrialised
farming system will continue to fail people and the environment around
the world.'
