From Bob Cowley
In your report on the disruption of the genetically modified coffee trial in French Guiana you state, “they chose French Guiana for the trial because no coffee grows there, avoiding any possibility that the GM variety could contaminate existing plants” (28 May, p 14).
In the next paragraph, however, you say: “the attack on the trial was not altogether surprising”, because “smallholders, who make up the majority of coffee-growers, fear that GM strains will enable richer farmers who can afford the technology to put them out of business.”
Forgive me, but if your reporter Andy Coghlan considers it not altogether surprising for crops to be attacked by a non-existent group of coffee-growers, he’s taking way too much valium.
Andy Coghlan writes:
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Fair point, but smallholders and even activists in French Guiana can be sympathetic to coffee-growers elsewhere. And obviously someone had a motive to do it.
Oxford, UK
