If there is a braver or more morally conscientious person in Britain than Mark Lynas, I should be surprised. Or so I felt by the final page of Seeds of Science: Why We Got It So Wrong on GMOs. It is a dull title for a gripping account of how Lynas turned from a pioneering protester against genetically modified organisms to a passionate advocate of the good that, in crop form, this immensely controversial technology might achieve in terms of reducing hunger and disease.

Mark Lynas regrets starting the anti-GM movement LARRY BUSACCA

The book begins with Lynas in a field “somewhere in eastern England” in 1999. It is 3am and “properly dark”. But there is just enough light for him to discern the targets for his machete, as it is for a dozen