MINISTERS have begun a campaign to lure agricultural research companies to Britain in the face of EU policies that have been blamed for stifling the development of genetically modified foods.

Last week Owen Paterson, the environment secretary, met executives from the German chemicals giant BASF, which decided two years ago to move its plant science headquarters to America amid an increasingly hostile political and consumer climate towards GM food in Europe.

The company cancelled a key project in Britain to develop a blight-resistant potato as part of its move away from Europe. BASF is understood to have been encouraged by Paterson’s positive attitude — in contrast to the tone struck by Brussels, which critics have called “anti-science”.

The meeting followed a speech by Paterson in