from Caroline Clarke:

The London Review of Books   22 March 01: makes a major contribution to reflection on the state we are now in. Rush to get a copy at £2.95

Front cover: Andrew O'Hagan: Versions of Pastoral Inside 'The End of British Farming' by Andrew O'Hagan (pp.3 to 16).

'...The way ahead is ominous...GM crops are corrupting the relation of people to the land they live on. Farmers were once concerned with the protection of the broad bio- diversity of their fields, but the new methods, especially GM,put land-use and food production into the hands of corporations, who are absent from the scene and environ- mentally careless.

By claiming exclusive intellectual property rights to plant breeding, the giant seed companies are gutting entire ecosystems for straight profit. In 'Brave New Seeds: the Threat of GM Crops to Farmers" [*] Robert Ali  Brac de la Perriere and Franck Seuret investigate the  hidden effects of GM-promoted intensification.' etc.

[* pubd. Zed, 158 pp. £9.99, 11 Dec 2000, 185649 900 6]

It is followed by James Meek's review which covers Prof. Dorothy Crawford's book on viruses 'The Invisible Enemy...'

Her book is in itself an interesting read, and she writes well. But, unlike the establishment scientists eminent in their own field, we know not only that many, if not most GM crops, have a virus as their promoter. We are also aware of how they have come to enter our food chain, and what the implications are.  So be forewarned, as Sir Antony Epstein has the first word, and this to say:

"...present antiscience backlash evident in Western countries (is) not only directed against science and scientists, but also against the multinational companies employing the new technologies...sustained tabloid hysteria". "(There is a need) to make clear the huge benefits to mankind of recent scientific progress." And, "...the public is not in a position to evaluate findings..." He continues in this vein, with which we the uninformed are now all too familiar.