Where does modern corn on the cob come from? Well-informed diners will know the answer: Latin America. But what they probably don’t know is that it never grew there naturally. Humans created it.

Six to 10 thousand years ago, some innovative Mesoamerican farmers noticed that whereas most varieties of teosinte grass produced lots of branches with a few edible kernels on each, others produced fewer branches. So they started breeding grass that produced good kernels with grass that didn’t produce as many branches. The result: the enormous, delicious, modern corn.

Almost no one regards corn with suspicion. But the same can’t be said for humans’ ingenious ability to engineer the plants we eat. Genetically modified (GM) crops are viewed with such hostility that they are barely grown in Europe. However, a new study by an independent group of scientists, who have done the most comprehensive review of the evidence so far, shows that our aversion to GM food is pointless, unscientific and harmful to farmers.