Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has reiterated claims he first made over the summer against environmentalists who oppose the spread of genetically modified crops.

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Speaking to the Independent over the weekend, the Environment Minister accused GM-sceptic organisations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth of condemning millions to malnutrition and potentially death in the developing world.

The environment secretary was repeating remarks first made in June, when, speaking at Rothamsted Research Institute in Hertfordshire, Mr Paterson declared his support for GM crops and promised to push for a relaxation of the EU's restrictions on the crops, the result of continued discord between different member states. He said such relaxation would benefit the UK's agriculture and scientific research sectors; currently only one variety of the controversial crops is licensed for production in the EU and the bloc's health Commissioner said no more GM crops are likely to be licensed until 2015 at the earliest. 

On Sunday, Paterson called protesters who have sabotaged trials of 'golden rice', which is fortified with vitamin A, "wicked" and "disgusting". He said, "It's just disgusting that little children are allowed to go blind and die because of a hang-up by a small number of people about this technology."

However, environmentalists including influential philosopher and agriculturalist Vandana Shiva, have suggested that the focus of organisations such as the World Health Organisation and private agribusinesses on single like vitamin A deficiency, and 'magic bullet' cures such as golden rice, obfuscate the larger issues of falling agricultural biodiversity and the resultant lack of widely available, diverse and nutritionally rich foods. Dr Shiva claims this systemic issue is principally the result of the encroachment of monoculture farming and intensive agriculture into areas where multicrop systems were formerly prevalent, particularly in developing countries.

Paterson's emotive claims about Golden Rice, which he echoed over the weekend, were called into question in June and his speech at Rothamsted was heavily criticised as being misleading. The Environment secretary was criticised for inferring cause and effect where there was none over the issue of vitamin A deficiency, and of using "large and inaccurate extrapolation" of figures to support his message.

Louise Payton, policy officer at organic farming organisation the Soil Association, rejected Paterson's assertions outright on Monday. She said, "This is a classic case where the social nature of a health problem is overlooked by scientists excited by the prospect of delivering a miraculous ‘quick fix’. We could have cured all blindness in developing countries years ago if only the money, publicity and research effort that has gone into Golden Rice over the last 20 years had gone into proven ways of curing the Vitamin A deficiency that causes blindness. We know this because over this period Vitamin A deficiency has dropped dramatically in the Philippines as a result of using these proven methods." 

Although GM crops are grown on 170 million hectares of land worldwide, their production is principally limited to a small number of agricultural powerhouses. Figures from the ISAAA, an organisation that seeks to promote the use of GM technology around the world, show that in 2011, just three countries (the United States, Brazil and Argentina) accounted for 77 percent of all GM crops grown worldwide. Five countries account for 90 percent of global GM crop production.