Frankenfine

ON a damp Sunday afternoon shoppers at Tesco, a supermarket, in south London seem uninterested in discussing genetically modified (GM) food. Several shrug at the idea, or profess ignorance. One insists she only buys organic stuff, but only if it is not too expensive. Their apparent indifference is striking.

Britain was once at the forefront of an anti-GM movement. In the late 1990s boiler-suit clad protesters stomped through fields; marches or sit-ins organised by green NGOs drew large anxious crowds. The public broadly supported them: in 2003 some 42% felt that the risks of GM outweighed the benefits, according to Ipsos MORI, a pollster. Only 20% thought that the benefits were bigger than the risks; the rest were unsure or indifferent. Most Europeans were similarly spooked. Such weight of public opinion ensured that GM crops were not grown commercially in most of Europe, including Britain.