No need for GM to feed the world
Emma Hockridge
The Independent, 4 September 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-humiliated-at-heathrow-1781425.html

The rhetoric surrounding GM crops misses a key point. GM is not "science" but merely a narrow, failing technology. The claims made by GM companies regarding increased yields, lower use of fertilisers and pesticides etc have not been realised.

The UK government is virtually a lone voice in Europe in pressing for unlicensed GM animal feed to be allowed into the EU. The reasons for food price increases are complex, and despite claims to the contrary, there are more than enough non-GM crops available.

All serious discussion and analysis regarding feeding the world is now taking climate change into account, and the subsequent need for agriculture to reduce emissions by 80 per cent. Therefore it is essential to utilise renewable forms of fertility, as organic farming does, and farming using GM technology does not.

Emma Hockridge
Policy Co-ordinator, Soil Association, Bristol
...

Your editorial suggesting that GM crops might "solve the world food crisis" (1 September) is misguided.

Any difficulty of supply has nothing to do with any limitation on production attributable to using GM-free seed-stock. Though producers and supermarkets would doubtless prefer it otherwise, the free market exists and demand will be met by supply. There is no intrinsic reason why GM-free production cannot meet the rising demand for food that can be widely regarded as safe.

A transition to a global food market dependent on GM intellectual property rights belonging to a small handful of unaccountable corporations is in the interest only of their shareholders. It would be potentially catastrophic for our entire civilisation.

Dr Ian East
Islip, Oxfordshire