Your article (Britain must launch GM food revolution, says chief scientist, 6 January), misrepresents my position and my paper at the Oxford Farming Conference. The paper makes no mention of GM and I have not said that Britain must launch a GM food revolution.

Increasing global population, urbanisation and purchasing power in parts of the developing world, combined with the need to combat climate change, means the world will need to produce 50% more food over the next two decades, using less land, less water, less fertiliser and less pesticide. Science and technology will have a vital role to play in helping the world combat these problems. That is why I launched the UK cross-government strategy for food research and innovation to develop solutions and to provide the evidence governments and the food industry will need to tackle these problems.

GM technology is not something that should be simply accepted or rejected. Indeed, it would be unwise to say either we must use, or we will never use, GM technology. The question that needs to be posed is, what particular problems of agricultural production can GM and/or other new technologies address? If GM technology can address some of the problems in agricultural production that conventional breeding or other technologies cannot, or can address them more efficiently and effectively, then clearly we need to be thinking about adopting it in these particular cases, with appropriate regulation ensuring safety to human health and the environment.

Professor John Beddington

Chief scientific adviser to the government

• The government's food "vision" puts the spotlight on an alarming trend in its approach to food and farming (Editorial, 6 January). From GM crops to supermarket regulation, it has consistently ignored independent evidence and investigations to bow to the demands of big business. While the Conservatives woo rural voters with the promise of a supermarket watchdog to protect farmers, Labour continues its obsession with GM crops, even though their introduction will sign a death warrant for many small farmers. Furthermore, the meat and dairy industry is responsible for a fifth of the world's climate-changing emissions, yet plans to tackle this are absent from the food plans.

Helen Rimmer

Friends of the Earth

• To be truly effective in tackling supermarket power an ombudsman must be fully independent, not a part of the Office of Fair Trading. It is not just UK farming that would benefit. The squeeze by UK supermarkets on developing countries is affecting suppliers and workers at the bottom of the supply chain. A decision from Peter Mandelson is long overdue.

Jenny Ricks

ActionAid UK