Wambugu concedes that GM crops are experimental but insists the potential good far outweighs the risks.
The government launched a series of nationwide public consultations on GM crops earlier this month.
Although not illegal, to date no GM crops have been grown commercially in the British countryside.
That has changed: in 2007 GM crops worldwide covered an area roughly equivalent to Colombia.
But with organic farming representing 3% of U.S. crop production, there is certainly room for GM crops to help.
It comes amid speculation that ministers are ready to relax control on the cultivation of GM crops.
For the record, here and upfront, I apologise for having spent several years ripping up GM crops.
FORBES: Mark Lynas' Apostasy, Modern Greens And What We've Still Got To Teach Them
Robin Harper (Green Party Convener, Lothians) asked whether the Executive has approved the commercial growing of GM crops in Scotland.
BBC: NEWS | Programmes | BBC Parliament | Scotland: First Minister's Questions (11/03/04)
At the moment, there is a voluntary distance of 200 metres between GM crops and neighbouring organic producers.
The lead author, Gilles-Eric Seralini, certainly has some very strong views on the subject of GM crops.
This puts big question marks over the message from biotech companies that GM crops mean automatic advantages for farmers.
They have gone through "amazingly scrupulous procedures" and followed very strict advice to ensure the GM crops cannot escape.
Whitehall ministers backed hundreds of field trials for GM crops in the 1990s.
Most countries were slow to start planting GM crops when they were introduced.
But he stressed he did not believe activities such as protesting against GM crops would be covered by the definition.
As more studies have been completed on the effects of GM crops, the green lobby's case against them has weakened.
Friday's vote is the first time a commission proposal on GM crops has been defeated through qualified majority voting among ministers.
BBC: NEWS | UK | UK Politics | GM crop bans survive Euro votes
As the briefing explains, Brazil's progress has been underpinned by the state agricultural-research company and pushed forward by GM crops.
Though GM crops still represent only a fraction of the world's agricultural output, their planting is growing at double-digit annual rates.
Conversely, with GM crops, the technology had already been foisted on the public and a debate ensued after it had been rejected.
These guidelines set out proposed separation distances between GM and non-GM crops.
The uptake of more radical innovations, such as drought resistant GM crops, is another solution to increase food production, suggests Agrimonde's report.
Others are worried that unless they encourage the adoption of more productive GM crops, other countries will steal a march on them.
Dr Huw Jones, research group leader at Rothamsted Research, one of the leading UK institutions in the field of GM crops, agreed.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Scientists hope to ease GM fears
They say GMOs will bankrupt farmers, but today China has more land growing GM crops than anyone else except the U.S. and Brazil.
Gilles-Eric has been funded by Greenpeace in the past and we all know how much they love the idea of GM crops.
While Americans seem happy enough to consume food made from GM crops, opinion polls continue to show that European consumers dislike the idea.
Mr Paterson dismissed concerns about human health, arguing that widespread use of GM crops around the world meant people were already unwittingly eating GM food.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it does not expect GM crops to be grown commercially in the UK until at least 2008.
BBC: NEWS | UK | UK Politics | GM crop bans survive Euro votes
There were concerns the development pesticide-resistant GM crops meant consumers were being exposed to increasingly toxic residues, some of which could damage embryos in the womb.
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