Genetic hokus pokus

Lynda Brown - 10 January 2012

This week sees the re-emergence of the GM debate - or rather, the first steps towards wooing us that perhaps our instincts were not correct, and how we need to re-examine the desirability of GM crops and animals and how they alone can provide food security and feed the world.

It is no secret that the current government is pro GM, as indeed is the shadow government; it is also clear that they think consumers (and many farmers) are stupid for not wanting to swallow all the wonderful if bizarre crops and animals they dream up on our behalf. After all, the biotech-cum-chemical industry are charitable souls and only have our best interests at heart, don't they? We really did want fish genes in our tomatoes, and of course it has to be a good idea to blanket spray the world with ever more pesticides, and so on. So what if the industry makes vast sums of money and gains an even stronger stranglehold on the world's farming practices . A small price to pay for all those wonderful benefits (not one, by the way, has materialised) . And of course, the natural world wouldn't hit back and develop resistance would it ?.Absolutely impossible, how dare anyone even think of such a thing. No, no, the biotech industry is impeachable, scientists always right, the white heat of biotechnolgy has replaced evolution, we are being silly and irrational , and that's the end of it. According to the Shadow Defra Minister, Mary Creagh, the only fault is that the biotech industry have got their spin wrong. You see, they didn't put it the right way.

That anaylsis by the shadow DEFRA minister should frighten you to bits. It shows clearly how unimportant we as people on this planet are : our role is to swallow whatever is hailed as progress, and put up and shut up. I urge everyone not to accept this. GM really is a crossroads for humanity, and far, far too important to be left to politicans. If there is one issue you need to decide about it's this.

So, please, please take the time to investigate for yourself both the pros and the cons of GM.I have no doubt which side of the fence you will come down on. As for Mary Creagh, I wonder perhaps if,instead of her current position, she might be more suited to play Mrs Bennett - "a woman of mean understanding" and "little information", in Pride and Prejudice.

Lynda is an award-winning food writer and broadcaster, and keen advocate for organic living. She is author of several food books over the last twenty years including Planet Organic: Organic Living, The Cook's Garden, and The Modern Cook's Handbook, as well as writing The Preserving Book that was published in 2010 in association with the Soil Association. Lynda is an expert on food and nutrition and a seasoned broadcaster, regularly speaking on food and farming both on the radio and television.

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