From Meredith Lloyd-Evans
Ben Ayliffe is upset about genetically modified beet and skylarks (17 January, p 31). Skylarks in abundance were a product of the agrarian revolution that was necessary to feed the people congregating in towns, the result of the industrial revolution.
In the present day, the most effective and realistic ways of restoring balance to farming would be to ban winter crops and drastically reduce the impact of farming on the environment by growing higher-yield GM crops on a smaller amount of land.
If Greenpeace wants to restore outmoded agriculture, the population will have to fall by 80 per cent, or we will all have to get by on that much less food.
Cambridge, UK
