1.GM crops have nothing to offer
2.Organic agriculture and food security

NOTE: Responses to a recent article in The Independent claiming organic farming doesn't add up; ancient forests must be axed; nature needs GM crops; we need to build more coal-fired power stations; and nuclear power and buying goods from China are the best way to combat climate change. See the article at:
http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2009/03/inconvenient-truths-dont-believe.html
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1.GM crops have nothing to offer
Letters, The Independent, 14 March 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-the-northern-irish-educational-system-1644914.html

Simon Usborne claims that "organic farming doesn't add up" and that "nature needs GM crops" ("Don't believe the greenwash", 3 March).

Organic farming doesn't claim to be a high-output system, but rather aims to be an optimal output system, producing sufficient quantities of great-quality food without environmental or animal-welfare compromises. However, in many parts of the world, modern organic systems can, and do, produce as much or more food than both oil/chemical-based non-organic farming and traditional systems.

GM crops do not increase yields, as GM campaigners claim. In the real world, the latest, higher-yielding varieties of soya sold in the US are not GM but from normal crop breeding. As labelling of GM (which Barack Obama favours) starts to force its way into the US marketplace, the last stronghold of GM food is crumbling. This is an old technology with nothing to offer the future.

Clio Turton
Soil Association, Bristol
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2.Organic agriculture and food security
Comment from the website
erfmuvver wrote:
The Independent, 4 March 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/inconvenient-truths-dont-believe-the-greenwash-1635867.html

Perhaps the author of this rather flippant piece might care to read the paper from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the United Nations Environment Programme called:
Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa.

The preface notes:

The evidence presented in this study supports the argument that organic agriculture can be more conducive to food security in Africa than most conventional production systems, and that it is more likely to be sustainable in the long term.

The article in the Independent recycles tired old arguments against organic that we have heard too many times. Let's have something with a bit more analysis.