BYLINE: Charles, Prince of Wales

BODY: The debate about the use of genetically modified technology continues, with daily news of claims about the safety or the risks. The public's reaction shows instinctive nervousness about tampering with nature when we don't know all the consequences. There are unanswered questions which need to be asked -- about the need for genetically modified food, its safety, the environmental consequences, consumer choice and the usefulness to feed the world's growing population.

Many food producers and retailers have clearly felt the same overwhelming anxiety from their consumers who are demanding a choice in what they eat. A number have banned genetically modified ingredients from their own-brand products.

But the debate continues to rage. Not a day goes by without some new piece of research claiming to demonstrate either the safety or the risks of genetically modified technology. It is very hard for people to know just who is right. Few of us are able to interpret all the scientific information which is available, and even the experts don't always agree.

But what I believe the public's reaction shows is that instinctively we are nervous about tampering with nature when we can't be sure that we know enough about all the consequences. I believe that there are still a number of unanswered questions which need to be asked.

- Do we need genetically modified food in this country? On the basis of what we have seen so far, we don't appear to need it at all. The benefits, such as there are, seem to be limited to the people who own the technology and the people who farm on an industrialized scale.

We are constantly told that this technology may have huge benefits for the future. Well, perhaps. But we have all heard claims like that before and they don't always come true in the long run - look at the case of antibiotic growth promoters in animal feedstuff ...

- Is genetically modified food safe for us to eat?

There is certainly no evidence to the contrary. But how much evidence do we have? And are we looking at the right things? The major decisions about what can be grown and what can be sold are taken on the basis of studying what is known about the original plant, comparing it to the genetically modified variety, and deciding whether the two are ''substantially equivalent.''

But is it enough to look only at what is already known? Isn't there at least a possibility that the new crops (particularly those that have been made resistant to antibiotics) will behave in unexpected ways, producing toxic or allergic reactions? Only independent scientific research, over a long period, can provide the final answer.

- Why are the rules for approving genetically modified foods so much less stringent than those for new medicines produced using the same technology? Before drugs are released into the marketplace they have to undergo the most rigorous testing -- and quite right too.

But genetically modified food is also designed in a laboratory for human consumption, albeit in different circumstances. Surely it is equally important that we are confident that they will do us no harm?

- How much do we really know about the environmental consequences of genetically modified crops?

Laboratory tests showing that pollen from genetically modified maize in the United States caused damage to the caterpillars of Monarch butterflies provide the latest cause for concern. If genetically modified plants can do this to butterflies, what damage might they cause to other species?

More alarmingly perhaps, this genetically modified maize is not under test. It is already being grown commercially throughout large areas of the U.S. Surely this effect should have been discovered by the company producing the seeds, or the regulatory authorities who approved them for sale, at a much earlier stage? Indeed, how much more are we going to learn the hard way about the impact of genetically modified crops on the environment?

- Is it sensible to plant test crops without strict regulations in place? Such crops are being planted in this country now, under a voluntary code of practice. But English Nature, the government's official adviser on nature conservation, has argued that we ought to put strict, enforceable regulations in place first.

Even then, will it really be possible to prevent contamination of wildlife or crops, whether organic or not? Since bees and the wind don't obey any sort of rules -- voluntary or statutory -- we shall soon have an unprecedented and unethical situation in which one farmer's crops contaminate another's against his will.

- How will consumers be able to exercise genuine choice? Labelling schemes clearly have a role to play. But if conventional and organic crops can become contaminated by genetically modified crops grown nearby, those people who wish to be sure they are eating or growing natural, non- industrialized, real food, will be denied that choice. This seems to me to be wrong.

- If something goes wrong with a genetically modified crop, who will be held responsible?

It is important that we know precisely who is going to be legally liable to pay for any damage, whether it be to human health, the environment or both. Will it be the company which sells the seed or the farmer who grows it? Or will it, as was the case with BSE, be all of us?

- Are genetically modified crops really the only way to feed the world's growing population?

This argument sounds suspiciously like emotional blackmail. Is there any serious academic research to substantiate such a sweeping statement? The countries which might be expected to benefit certainly take a different view.

Representatives of 20 African states, including Ethiopia, have published a statement denying that gene technologies will ''help farmers to produce the food that is needed in the 21st Century.'' On the contrary, they ''think it will destroy the diversity, the local knowledge and the sustainable agricultural systems ... and undermine our capacity to feed ourselves.''

How much more could we achieve if all the research funds currently devoted to fashionable genetically modified techniques -- which run into billions of dollars a year -- were applied to improving methods of agriculture which have stood the test of time? We already know that yields from many traditional farming systems can be doubled, at least, by making better use of existing natural resources.

- What effect will genetically modified crops have on the poorest countries?

Christian Aid has just published a devastating report, entitled ''Selling Suicide,'' explaining why genetically modified crops are unlikely to provide solutions to the problems of famine and poverty. Where people are starving, lack of food is rarely the underlying cause. It is more likely to be lack of money to buy food, distribution problems or political difficulties.

The need is to create sustainable livelihoods for everyone. Will genetically modified crops do anything to help? Or will they make the problems worse, leading to increasingly industrialized forms of agriculture, with larger farms, crops grown for export while indigenous populations starve and more displaced farm workers heading for a miserable existence in yet more shanty towns?

* What sort of world do we want to live in?

This is the biggest question of all. I raise it because the capacity of genetically modified technology to change our world has brought us to a crossroads of fundamental importance. Are we going to allow the industrialization of Life itself, redesigning the natural world for the sake of convenience and embarking on an Orwellian future? And, if we do, will there eventually be a price to pay?

Or should we be adopting a gentler, more considered approach, seeking always to work with the grain of Nature in making better, more sustainable use of what we have, for the long- term benefit of mankind as a whole? The answer is important. It will affect far more than the food we eat; it will determine the sort of world we, and our children, inhabit.

GRAPHIC: CP Color Photo: Stefan Rousseau, AP / Prince Charles walks through a meadow that has not been treated with modern fertilizers or herbicides at Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's Clattinger Farm, west England. The visit by the Prince of Wales comes a day after he courted controversy by saying genetically modified crops are unnecessary.