Underneath a cloudless sky and surrounded by the greenest of English landscapes, two opposing forces assembled their ranks on a plot of land in the middle of Hertfordshire like two medieval armies readying themselves for battle.

The battle over GM food has begun again and it seems there is little in common between those in favour of research and those opposed, other than a belief that they are right and the other side is wrong.

Faced with a major security operation, campaigners withdraw to fight another day

Three senior scientists made impassioned appeals yesterday to anti-GM campaigners not to destroy a field trial of GM wheat that is the culmination of several years' work.

As scientists at Rothamsted's GM trials plead with activists not to sabotage their work, Michael McCarthy visits the battle field

This Sunday, exasperated farmers and citizens will travel to a field near Harpenden to uproot a crop of genetically modified wheat. They have been denounced in purple prose by pro-GM commentators, as science haters, "Nazi book burners" and vandals. But what else can concerned citizens do when the company conducting the GM wheat trial, Rothamsted Research, presses on recklessly with an open field experiment that has the potential to contaminate neighbouring farmers' crops and trigger unpredictable impacts on other species?

Canadian researchers have found traces of GM pesticide in 93 per cent of baby foetuses

A 50-year-old man has been charged with criminal damage after an incident at a research centre testing genetically modified wheat.

A 50-year-old man has been charged with criminal damage after an incident at a research centre where a trial of GM wheat is taking place.

Scientists working on a new generation of genetically modified crops have sent an open letter to anti-GM protesters pleading with them not to destroy “years of work” by attacking their research plots.

"P.T.E.R.O.D.A.C.T.Y.L?" Even as someone who gets paid to write words, that one nearly stung me. The spelling bee, the US educational staple made famous by 2002 documentary, Spellbound, is now available to test British wordsmiths' spelling abilities.

The spring wheat now growing in a small field in Hertfordshire is mind-boggling stuff. More than 20 years in the making, the crop shares some of its DNA with the peppermint plant. The result is a chemical copy of the pheromone that aphids use to warn each other of danger.

Glencore, the world's largest commodities trader, has agreed to buy Canada's largest grain handler in a C$6.1bn (£3.9bn) deal that will shake up an industry which should flourish as global demand for food surges.

The commodities giant Glencore is set to weigh in on the takeover battle for Viterra, Canada's largest grain handler, with a joint bid with two local companies, Richardson International and Agrium.