MADAM, In response to Matthew Price's letter, published in last week's Gazette, I too am motivated to write, regarding the unwarranted castigation of Mr Jones. Self-appointed consultant or not, Mr Jones was simply articulating certain publicly available facts about GM foodstuffs and the industry's reluctance to act in the consumers' best interests – issues carefully sidestepped by Mr Price.

Contrary to Mr Price's postulations, Mr Jones cannot be accused of scaremongering when he is merely quoting the pro-GM Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, and rightly assessing that the 'horsemeat scandal' is symptomatic of an industry endemically guilty of dishonesty, greed, fraud and deception – all spawned by the desire to maximise profits.

Both correspondents are right to praise Ross's organic shop and its excellent independent butchers, all of whom I support. But that praise cannot be extended to GM-friendly Morrisons. Buying British is not the same as buying local. All supermarkets are part of the same profit culture that drives the rest of the industry and are guilty, amongst other things, of creating a spurious niche market for organic.

In the end, Steve Jones is right. Buying organic (from local independents) must be the default position for anyone concerned about provenance and dietary welfare.

Rob Elliott, Hoarwithy