Prince Charles and GM Food

Prince Charles has always been an unlikely royal. Time after time he has failed to keep his mouth shut about the things he believes in and this is a quality that endears him to me.

We are all by now aware of his opinions on architecture. The inside-out Lloyds building in London, which I have always quite liked, provoked his most famous rant.

In recent years he has become better known for his passion for organic food. The Duchy Original brand which started life with one product, a tasty oat based biscuit now boasts over 300 organic products. He also has his own organic farm in Gloustershire. I have visions of him out in the fields, fork in hand, harvesting perfect organic vegetables from the ground but I am aware that he probably has little to do with the day to day running of the farm. Recently he has taken residence in his Grandmothers castle in Caithness (North Scotland) and has pledged an initiative to help Scotland's farmers and fishermen.

Knowing this it came as little surprise to me that this week he launched a scathing attack on GM Foods. The outburst came in the middle of an interview with a Telegraph Journalist.

His main concerns seem to be the globalisation of the food industry, he goes on to suggest that the corporations behind GM strains are putting us on course for the "biggest disaster environmentally for all time" You can listen to his full outburst here.

His strong opinions seem to have caused a bit of a stir in the UK. Some people believe that the Royal family should be prim and proper and not meddle in politics. Others just claim he is wrong. Some such as Freinds Of the Earth and the Soil Association are patting him on the back.

For me I find it incredible that a few sentences uttered by Prince Charles are capable of re-opening the GM debate in the UK, especially so soon after it was revealed that Gordon Brown was hoping to allow more GM tests to be carried out on British Soil. Ireland is still a GM crop free zone and I hope that we will be able to find and Irish voice as influential as Prince Charles to keep it that way.

Well done Prince Charles!