Rational Agriculture

So said Hugh Grant, president of Monsanto, in "Farming Today" programme on the radio this morning (at too ungentlemanly an hour for most of us, but reported on the BBC news website). He says that surveys show farmers to be generally positive, which seems to fit with previous surveys, and only goes to show that farmer need to earn a living and are more open-minded than some in the environmentalist movement.

Of course, whether or not UK farmers grow GM crops themselves, the EU is still dependent on imported GM soya for animal feed: we are by no means a GM-free zone, as some might like to think.

Predictably, Friends of the Earth (has anyone asked Gaia whether she wants friends like these?) come out with their mantra of "much more research is needed". This is because all the research that has taken place in the last decade or so has failed to demonstrate the dire consequences they predict. So, if you don't have facts to back up your case, keep doing research until something negative turns up. Then trumpet this as proof that you are right, and ignore the vast majority of evidence which does not support your case. No wonder some of the more unthinking environmentalists are losing credibility with the public and Greenpeace is now taking a much more measured approach to the emerging issue of nanotechnology.