The heir to the British throne claims that genetically modified crops are a disaster. Now a cabinet minister has asked him in effect to put up or shut up. The Guardian reports: 

"If it has been a disaster then please provide the evidence," said Phil Woolas, the environment minister, in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.

He accused Prince Charles of ignoring the needs of the world's poorest countries by attacking GM crops, and insisted the government would go ahead with trials unless scientific evidence showed they were harmful.

On Wednesday, after the prince told the Daily Telegraph that GM crops were an experiment "gone seriously wrong", the government said it welcomed all voices in the debate and stressed that safety was its priority.

But in highly critical comments that suggest high-level anger at the prince's intervention, Woolas said the government had a "moral responsibility" to investigate whether GM crops could help alleviate hunger in the developing world. It was easy for people in countries where food was plentiful to ignore the potential of GM to raise agricultural productivity, he said.