Genetic engineers

Liz Con nor writes( The Scots man magazine ,25 august ):“in contrast, most of the... wheat we eat today has been developed by cross-breeding and genetic manipulation, meaning we don’t get the same nutritional benefits.”

Oh, no it doesn’t. Ms Connor is confusing the techniques used with the motivation, wisdom and skill of those who use them, or pay others to use them.

It is rather as though she were to write: “Most journalism today is entered at the keyboard of a computer, meaning a lower standard of journalism”, a sentiment which I am sure The Scotsman would not endorse!

A lot of genetic engineering has been done by large corporations in the single-minded pursuit of profit, but differently motivated genetic engineers are now at their lab benches working towards different results.

On Page 24, Erika C. Hayden reviews a book which asserts that the horizontal transmission of genes is more common in nature than had been supposed, so perhaps genetic engineering isn’t even unnatural!

ROGER WEST Swanston View, Edinburgh