Dear Sir/Madam,

George Monbiot does well to point out in Tuesday's Guardian the positions (and interests) of those advising the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), which allocates government funds for agriculture and food production, making it clear why funding is so heavily biased in favour of GM, while organic farming barely gets a look in ("Force-fed a diet of hype").

However, one should hardly be surprised about the disproportionate and undemocratic influence commercial interests have over the course of events, since it is a typical example of how the System works. And it involves more than just commercial interests. Someone who has devoted years of higher education and their career to genetically engineering organisms is not easily going to be convinced that it is not such a good idea, anymore than someone with a comparable stake in nuclear energy is going to appreciate what a mistake that was. Imagine someone who has trained to be a teacher, doctor, engineer, or journalist, for example, attaining a prestigious and well-paid position, being good at their job, and then being told: "Sorry, we don't need or want you anymore!"

The System makes it very difficult for anyone to be even remotely objective about their means of making a living.

The System also expects and encourages investors to invest their money, not where it will do the greatest good for society, as one might naively expect, but where, after considering the risk involved, it will earn them the most money.

Money does not only make the world go round, its blind pursuit (which is built and programmed into the system!) also determines where we are heading - which is towards disaster!

Our social and economic system is fundamentally flawed and we urgently need to wake up to the fact. Unfortunately, recognising the "insanities of normality", which we have all grown up with and take for granted, is not easy, especially when so much (our jobs, investments, lifestyles, aspirations, etc.) depends on them.