NOTE: 2 excellent letters.
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World hunger? Let them eat biofuel
The Independent, 28 August 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk:80/opinion/letters/letters-defining-britishness-910781.html

It is all very well for Struan Stevenson MEP to call for GM to deal with food scarcity arising from population growth and climate change (letter, 23 August), yet he omits to mention biofuels as a major cause of the current food scarcity he describes.

GM has not been shown to improve the maximal yield of any crop, even if it can save on insecticides or tilling. In contrast, every unit of foodstuff converted into biofuel is one unit less to go round the poorest, and the cost can be huge in cross-subsidy, as well as high food prices for all.

With biofuel targets having been slammed by senior analysts in the OECD, World Bank, IMF, IFPRI and the EU's own scientific research centre, will he or other MEPs vote against such targets in a few weeks' time?

Jim Roland
London NW11

Struan Stevenson writes that "food security is now top of the political agenda" . The Soil Association certainly agrees with that . However, Stevenson goes on to say that GM is the only way out of this "looming crisis".

There is increasing evidence that organic production does have the potential to feed the world. A recent report from an international group of over 400 scientists, published by the UN (the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development) concludes that organic farming has real potential to help feed the world in an era of increasing oil prices and urgent need to cut greenhouse gases, because organic farming systems use the sun's energy and legumes to fix nitrogen in the soil, not oil and gas.

By contrast, the role of GM in feeding the world is much less clear. Over 20 published peer-reviewed studies show worse or no better yields for GM crops. In 2006, the pro-GM US Department of Agriculture observed that "currently available GM crops do not increase yield potential", a point already made by a report from the FAO in 2004 that acknowledged "GM crops can have reduced yields".

Clio Turton
Soil Association, Bristol