The extreme weather of 2012 has turned British farmers on to
genetically modified crops, with calls from farming leaders to
start using the technology as a way to help combat the effects
of climate change. England's wettest year on record, and the
UK's second wettest, which had begun with one of the worst
droughts for decades, has persuaded an increasing number of
farmers that the development of crop varieties with engineered
resistance to extreme weather conditions is now a priority.
Farming groups are in favour of the move, and many individual
farmers now want to explore the use of the controversial
techniques, according to delegates at the Oxford Farming
Conference. "If the UK is sets itself outside the global market
[in which many countries are pursuing GM crops] then we would
become fossilised into an old-fashioned way of farming," Peter
Kendall, president of the National Farmers' Union, told the
Guardian. "The majority of our members are aware of the real
risk of becoming globally uncompetitive because