Farmers Weekly

Gm Food Is Not The Bogeyman

(Letter to the Editor of Farmers Weekly)

All those not in favour of GM crops, please take your clothes off. That is because most cotton has been genetically modified.

If those opposed to GM foods could identify what has been harmful then we could assess the risk. But I don't think anyone has died of GM food yet. I would prefer the protesters to divert their enthusiasm to more harmful products such as tobacco, alcohol or petrol.

The flood victims in Mozambique will not be too concerned whether the emergency food aid is GM or not. Food is available as a surplus only because of yield increases due to better plant growing techniques including GM. It is much easier to protest on a full belly. Developing countries anxious to feed their populations would be unlikely to give the GM opposition much confidence either. When times get tough the protest evaporates.

There are more serious food issues to address and these are the amount of foodstuff the UK imports, and the controls needed on imported foods. We have stringent controls on home-produced foods and the Public Health Department does a good job. But it's the imported food that worries me not genetically modified food.

How do we test food for genetic modification? We are good at testing milk but GM foods would need a new department just to monitor it.

G Wynne
Glenshamrock Farm, Auchinleck, Ayrshire.