Thank you for publishing my latest letter to you (GM Folly, 27 May 2000). However, in view of the article in today's Telegraph, which casually refers to BNFL having long-term liabilities in the order of £36 BILLION (British Nuclear Fuels faces bankruptcy, 28 May 2000), it is a pity you chose to leave out my reference to the development of nuclear energy as a glaring recent example of human folly - sold to us as "progress" by experts, the media and governments alike - from which we should learn, before rushing headlong into commercial exploitation of the possibly equally perilous and costly field of genetically modified organisms (GMO).

I am not suggesting that we stop its development dead in its tracks - even if that were possible - but that we take a good look at the forces driving it, i.e. "economic necessity" and the not-so-enlightened self-interest of the scientists, companies and governments promoting it; and also give some consideration to man's never-tiring overestimation of himself, listening to the Green Prince of Wales rather than to the blind advocates of "progress".

If we had done this 30 years ago with respect to nuclear energy we might never have gone so far into the horribly dangerous and absurdly expensive cul-de-sac it turned out to be.