Letter: We are GM's guinea pigs

LORD MELCHETT and Greenpeace should be applauded for their efforts in trying to protect us from genetically engineered crops ("Today's vandal will be tomorrow's hero", 1 August). The real vandals who should be prosecuted are the bio-tech companies and the Government for contaminating our environment irreversibly; for example, geneticists have linked the emergence of pathogenic bacteria and of antibiotic resistance to gene transfer between unrelated species.

To add insult to injury we, as taxpayers, are footing the bill for this hazardous experiment, as well as being the guinea pigs. Why must these crops be grown when the public have made it abundantly clear that they do not want them? Is this disregard of public opinion part of Tony Blair's Third Way?

PHILIP GREIG

Swindon, Wiltshire