Truth can come a cropper when the eco-warriors go into action.
The Observer Guy Poppy always wanted to be a scientist. The pursuit of knowledge, not for profit but for its own sake, has been his motivation. Insects, in particular, fascinate him and are the focus of his work at the Institute of Arable Crops Research, near Rothamsted, in Hertfordshire. Not for him the blanketing of fields with chemicals or the redesigning of living creatures to suit the commercial needs of major pharmaceutical companies. I was only interested in looking at GM plants as management systems for testing natural biological controls,' he says.