Nowhere is the potential of agricultural biotechnology and GM crops more obvious than in Africa, as Graeme O'Neill reports.

EU environment ministers dealt a blow to efforts to get more GMO crops grown in Europe as they agreed to uphold eight national bans on genetically modified maize and rapeseed types.

A leading South African biosafety expert has told a Brisbane conference that the biotechnology revolution is beginning to roll across Africa, with small-scale farmers clamouring to grow genetically modified crops.

Two Cambridge University plant molecular geneticists are quitting the UK to work in Australia because of the nation's climate of virulent opposition to genetically modified (GM) crops.

Dr Klaus Amman is puzzled by the furore over pollen drift from genetically modified crops - "Pollen did not learn to fly with transgenes," he said.

There are signs that, even in the UK and Europe, consumer and political attitudes towards GM crops and foods are thawing, according to the scientist who has led the global campaign for GM agriculture, Prof Channapatna S Prakash.