GM evidence

Dave Morris (Letters, 7 September) objects to Professor Trewavas’s use of scientific evidence to support GM crops. What would he prefer? Emotion? Rhetoric?

Adoption of GM technology has delivered huge benefits for farmers and the environment, much in the Third World. William Klumper and others from the University of Gottingen published a paper in 2014 showing that in-built resistance to pests has meant a 41 per cent reduction in chemical usage and a 69 per cent increase in profit for the farmers. Surely that is a good thing by any measure?

The Scottish Government will have a much bigger challenge when invited to extend their GM ban to imports of GM soya – widely used in Scotland’s “clean and green” beef industry. Vytenis Andriukaitis, EU health commissioner, has presented proposals to allow national capitals to prohibit their farmers from using imports of GM feed for their livestock. There is no evidence that feeding GM soya to livestock does it any harm at all (or indeed any evidence that humans come to any harm from eating GM foods) but is that to be ignored as well?

Edward Baxter

Gilston Mains

Leven

Fife