GM food: Goldsmith on Paterson 'wicked' golden rice claim

The environment secretary's description of genetically modified (GM) opponents as "wicked" has been called "grotesque" and an "indescribably stupid thing to say" by a fellow Conservative MP.

Owen Paterson claimed those against GM golden rice, enriched with vitamin A, could be condemning millions of people in the developing world to a premature death.

But Zac Goldsmith told the Daily Politics the people behind the rice said it was not ready to be issued to the market yet,

He said: "So the idea that campaigners and particularly campaigners in the West have got anything to do with slowing the process of golden rice is not only grotesque... I think it's just an indescribably stupid thing to say, based on absolute misinformation, or ignorance, or whatever you want to call it."

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