A new Royal Society report into genetically modified foods has blown open the debate once more as leaders back GM crops to tackle the possible impending food crisis.

The report, entitled Reaping the Benefits: Towards a Sustainable Intensification of Global Agriculture, has suggested that GM crops could even be grown in the UK.

John Beddington, the government’s chief scientific adviser, also renewed his call for GM crops to ensure global food security ahead of a new 12-month public consultation exercise on GM food to be undertaken by the Food Standards Agency.

The first GM trial in a year was recently re-started in Leeds, with the government's support, and a recent report on food security from DEFRA backed further research into the technology.

But the report has divided stakeholders in the industry as some see the development of GM as key in ensuring food security while opposing critics slammed the debate as “past its sell by date”.

The Food Ethics Council cautiously welcomed the report, it said in a statement: “As well as providing a useful snapshot of the science, it recognises that technology - including GM - is no magic bullet in the fight against hunger.

“We are encouraged by the Royal Society’s understanding that social and economic policies must also be in place to ensure food security.

“However, the report assumes that feeding people is about growing food, not how it’s distributed and consumed. It fails to face up to the fact that a billion people already people go hungry, while many more are buying - and throwing away - more food than they need.”

Jim Godfrey, director of potato producer RJ & AE Godfrey, told FPJ Europe needed to follow the rest of the world’s lead.

He said: “Outside of Europe, GM technologies are being taken and the debate has moved on from food safety to the environment. The problem is the power will be with the international seed companies if the government, as it has in the past, pulls out of funding and development when protestors become involved.

“But the government has been more supportive of late and I hope this leads to change based on sound science. Products such as soya, oilseed rape, soy and maize have experienced rapid growth and become the top four crops as a result of GM.”

And the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC)’s chief executive Nigel Jenney said: “The UK horticulture industry already leads in the adoption of integrated pest management systems and the FPC will continue to press the UK government and others to ensure that the industry has the necessary tools to provide a sustainable supply of fresh produce. Within this context we believe that it is important that new technologies including genetically modified GM products should be considered based on sound science, case by case, and that informed decisions are taken after full consultation between government, the industry and consumers.”

The news comes as a genetically modified aubergine has been approved for growth in India pending approval by the country’s environment minister Jairam Ramesh.

But organic lobbyists the Soil Association reacted angrily to the reports which fly in the face of its interests.

Emma Hockridge, its policy co-ordinator, said: “GM is past its sell by date. For over two decades huge claims have been made about the potential for GM, which have not come to fruition. Why is an organisation like the Royal Society banging the drum for a failing technology when exciting new developments such as Marker Assisted Selection, included in the report recommendations, are producing almost all of the successful innovations in crop breeding?

“Scientific evidence proves that low input systems, such as organic, can provide sustainable solutions to food security…In the US there have been two federal court cases which have banned new GM crops because they remove the right of farmers to grow non-GM crops. The stark reality is that if we have GM crops grown in this country it will eventually destroy the livelihoods of organic farmers.”

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