ALPBACH (Austria): Genetically modified crops pose no danger to humans, British Nobel prize winner Timothy Hunt said at a European technology forum taking place in Austria.

In an interview with the forum newspaper “Alpbach News”, on the sidelines of the current European Forum technology talks in Austria’s Tyrol Province, molecular biologist Hunt said contrary to the perception that gene technology was putting impurities into nature, each bite of food already contains manipulated DNA.

It didn’t matter whether DNA was transferred from one plant to another by a human being or whether this was done by an insect.

Hunt said the reason for popular scepticism was a “philosophical problem” as humans tend to exclude themselves from nature.

He himself could not understand this attitude, and was concerned that humanity had become too arrogant. “If gene manipulated organisms can grow better in the developing countries, we should not deny the population there these advantages merely because we do not agree with gene research.”

Hunt’s remarks echoed those of US President George W. Bush, who accused the Europeans of an “unscientific” and “immoral” attitude in their restrictive stance on gene technology was endangering the fight against hunger in Africa.

Timothy Hunt was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology for his research into the cell cycles of sea urchins. Also taking part in the Alpbach discussions are Nobel laurates Klaus von Klitzing (Physics, 1995), Jean-Marie Lehn (Chemistry, 1987), and Jack Steinberger (Physics, 1988).—dpa