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The past two weeks have seen unprecedented media coverage in Britain of genetic modification issues. Many of the reports have called for stronger regulation and for a moratorium on the commercial growing of crops until the risks to human health and the environment are better understood.

The government, led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, is continuing to resist calls for a moratorium from opposition political parties and from its own wildlife advisory body, English Nature.

It is also resisting calls from the main opposition Conservative party for the dismissal of the science minister, Lord David Sainsbury, an enthusiastic supporter of biotechnology. Before becoming a minister, Sainsbury was chairman of the supermarket group that bears his name when it started selling genetically modified food last year. He now chairs an advisory panel on public perceptions of the biosciences.

John Redwood, Conservative spokesman on trade and industry, said: “We need a minister who is independent. David Sainsbury made up his mind years ago and is an advocate of the technology.” But Jack Cunningham, secretary of state for the cabinet office, defended Sainsbury as a minister of high personal integrity.

Attention has also focused on whether Britain's regulatory framework is sufficiently rigorous to ensure that commercial releases of genetically modified crops do not harm human health and the environment.

Derek Burke, former chairman of the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes, says that any application to commercialize products containing genetically modified lectins would be assessed for toxicity, and would be unlikely to be approved.

But environmental groups argue that the approval of genetically modified products ought to be as rigorous as the drugs licensing process.

The government is currently reviewing all scientific advisory committees associated with biotechnology.