Letter: Consider long term effects of GM foods

There is no proof that GMOs are the idea method of increasing the world's food production. On the contrary we have had all this before in the 60s and 70s with the so called,"green revolution" in the Third World, which now is less and less universally acclaimed, especially amongst small farmers, who have been main losers.

See the last two disastrous seasons here in the UK for arable farmers it is perhaps understandable that a "quick fix" should look attractive, but GMOs are not one of these because of the long term implications.

At the moment farmer Robert Lee can choose the variety of seed potatoes to plant and this is biodiversity. Ownership by the giant American corporations of the GMOs will undeniably narrow the choice as their market grows, the farmer will then be at the behest of the monopolies.

But fundamentally there is no retreat once agriculture goes down this path, there is always the potential that GMOs will disrupt many natural ecosystems and processes and once there they are embodied in the world's agroecological systems there is no pulling back.

Farming of all livelihoods, needs to consider carefully the long term effect; Tomorrow's harvest is important too.

John Lloyd

South Shropshire Green Party