EXTRACT: This is the lesson that has emerged from science itself. What passes as ultra-modern, high-tech GM crops and bigger factory farms belongs to a more primitive age.

NOTE: Dr Colin Tudge trained as a biologist and is a 3-time winner of the Science Writer of the Year Award. His career includes serving as Features Editor at New Scientist and his own science programme on BBC Radio. He's the author of numerous works on food, agriculture, genetics, and species diversity.
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Oxford rebels attack 'pro-GM' conference
William Surman
Farmers Guardian, 4 January 2011
http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/arable/arable-news/oxford-rebels-attack-pro-gm-conference/36356.article

OXFORD Farming Conference rebels have attacked the flagship agricultural event for adopting a pro-GM stance.

The rebels, whose rival conference begins in Oxford today (Tuesday, January 4), say new technologies like GM will put Britain’s food supply at risk, adding politicians that back the technology show an ‘alarming ignorance’.

The Oxford Real Farming Conference, the reformist alternative to the long established conference in the city, will instead focus on how 'biological science' can feed a growing population without threatening the planet.

Colin Tudge, co-organiser of the rival conference, said: "If we truly want to feed ourselves - and the nine-billion people who will live on the planet by 2050 - without destroying everything else, we need a new kind of science.

"We need a science rooted in the principles of biology particularly ecology."

The first day of the rival conference will concentrate on biological science theory and the second day will tackle practical applications of biological agriculture.

Topics include:

    * Milk from grass a healthier alternative to putting cows in sheds
    * Soil productivity how the application of biological principles results in good yields and nutrient rich foods
    * Healthier bread taste a loaf made from wheat with enhanced mine selenium, vital for the human immune system
    * Healthy diets discover how traditional animal foods, far from threatening our health, offer protection against many modern diseases.

Mr Tudge said the programme proved there was no need for agriculture to 'conquer nature'.  

"We need to understand nature and work with it. This requires a different conception of how nature really works. This is the lesson that has emerged from science itself. What passes as ultra-modern, high-tech GM crops and bigger factory farms belongs to a more primitive age," he said.