Adam Vaughan says he wants this ASAP on Thursday so 24 hours maybe?? Came at around 3 today

Dear Take the Flour Back

We are pleased that your protest passed peacefully although we would welcome you removing your continuing threat to “decontaminate” our experiment.

We must emphasise again, Rothamsted Research is an independent charitable company providing the science to develop more environmentally sustainable solutions for farming. We are not a large corporation, this work has no commercial sponsor and the results will be given away freely. Illegally destroying this publically-funded research will push this science towards the big multinational companies and therefore promote the very problems you seek to avoid.

We have already tried to address your many concerns extensively in public, e.g. through live online Q&A, numerous interviews and articles, including a magazine edited by an associate of Jyoti Fernandes (your BBC Newsnight representative). If you still feel safety is an issue, please note that another independent inspection of our experiment, by the Food and Environment Research Agency on 17th May 2012, concluded they “did not identify any risks to human health or the environment”.

We have spoken extensively with many different people about our work, including groups unsupportive of the trial, an offer extended to you in early April. It’s unfortunate that you declined this offer as well as the offer for a public debate, which you asked for and we arranged (details on our website). Seven days notice was unfortunately not enough time for you to find 2-3 speakers. It’s a shame that you have chosen this, 800 word limit, debate-by-correspondence instead.

The views you expressed at Sunday’s protest included large corporate ownership, farming systems, other socio-political dimensions, concerns over GM potatoes and GM rice. We therefore conclude that focusing on scientists conducting a small-scale field trial of wheat will not address all of your expressed concerns.

As we have said to you previously, there needs to be bigger wide-ranging debate on GM with a chance to present factual evidence and take questions and contributions from a public audience from many backgrounds. Recent surveys suggest the public is largely neutral on GM issues, possibly because they are open to learning more. Scientific research can help that process, a view shared by the 6000+ people who have signed a petition supporting our research over the last 4 weeks, also strong support from the “largest farming organisation in the UK”, the NFU.

We now offer you the last word in this exchange.

Yours sincerely

John Pickett and the team at Rothamsted Research.