The Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson MP, has controversially claimed that GM farming would save the countryside and cost less.

Mr Paterson says that Britain should lead the way in producing genetically-modified food because it would lower prices and free up the countryside.

A long standing advocate of GM technology, Mr Paterson claims its adoption in the UK could be as significant as the agricultural revolution.

He has pointed out that since 1996 there has been a hundred-fold increase in the use of GM crops around the world, with 17 million farmers in 28 countries now growing what critics have branded Frankenstein foods. Less than 0.1 per cent of this takes place in the EU.

• Related: Research suggests GM diet ‘can lead to disease in pigs’…

According to Mr Paterson farmers wouldn’t grow these crops if they didn’t benefit from doing so. Governments wouldn’t license these technologies, he says, if they didn’t recognise the economic, environmental and public benefits. He also added that consumers wouldn’t buy these products if they didn’t think they were safe and cost-effective.

In a speech designed to appeal to traditionalists, he said that while the rest of the world is ploughing ahead and reaping the benefits of new technologies, Europe risks being left behind.

… The use of GM (technology) could be as transformative as the original agricultural revolution was. The UK should be at the forefront now, as it was then.

Mr Paterson says that GM farming can help feed people in poorer countries and inject missing vitamins into the diets of children in the UK. He also argued that using GM crops to improve yields will require less space, and will free up more greenfield land.

… If we use cultivated land more efficiently, we could free up space for biodiversity, nature and wilderness.

The Environment Secretary also promotes the view that GM crops can help combat the effects of Britain’s increasingly erratic climate.

In recent weeks, the Prime Minister, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Mark Walport, and the Science Minister, David Willetts, have all voiced support for GM crops.

Mr Paterson intends to lead a campaign among European ministers to make Brussels lift many of its restrictions on the use of GM technology.

The Minister of State says that he is conscious of those who need reassurance on this matter. He highlighted the need for government, industry and the scientific community of having a duty to the British public to reassure them that GM is a ‘safe, proven and beneficial innovation.’

But despite the assurances, the Soil Association has warned:

… We need farming that helps poorer African and Asian farmers produce food – not farming that helps (GM producers) Bayer, Syngenta and Monsanto produce profits.