The trials of GM crops in Britain have been among the most controversial moves in modern farming, leading to protests and attacks by some campaign groups.

The Right Reverend John Oliver, who is the Church of England's spokesman on the environment and rural issues, said there was an enormous amount of hysteria on both sides of the argument.

Bishop Oliver, whose diocese also covers south Shropshire, said there was no evidence that GM crops were harmful.

Whitehall ministers backed hundreds of field trials for GM crops in the 1990s.

Now the government wants to gauge public opinion before deciding whether the crops can be grown commercially.

The results of the farm-scale trials of four crops proposed for Britain, carried out over the last four years, are not due to be known until September.