Genetic modification will become an everyday feature of future farming. It will result in plant varieties which do more than simply make weed control easier and sell more herbicide. The next generation will – at long last – actually provide benefits to the population of this planet. Maybe these crops will be more drought-resistant (use less water) or maybe they will contain Omega 3 oils. The technology is brilliant and useful and inevitable.
Oliver Walston, Thriplow Farms, Cambridgeshire
As well as potential risks to wildlife and human health, GM technologies have consistently underperformed, despite claims from the biotech industry that they are necessary to meet the “perfect storm” of climate change, resource depletion and a growing global population.
Soil Association
Views on GM foods are widely divergent, but Oliver Walston is among a growing band of UK farmers open to all available agricultural technologies. Collectively we must design and develop agricultural solutions that are both intensive and sustainable, and fit differing circumstances on farms all round the world.
Have your say on GM foods
The GM divide
Anti-GM protestor, Dorset © Adrian Arbib/Still Pictures
