The food court

Re “How the potato got hot,” Opinion, July 7

The article suggests that we should welcome genetically modified foods -- as we ultimately welcomed the potato.

The real history of the potato is a more cautionary tale. It suggests we should be careful when we manipulate the food supply to the profit of a few and the potential peril of many.

Peggy Stone

Los Angeles

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While inside an Indian market in the Andes, I was amazed at the colors and varieties of locally grown potatoes being sold there. They were the colors of the rainbow and a myriad of different shapes and sizes.

In response to Tom Standage’s article, I must note that these varieties were not developed in a laboratory.

Standage asks whether famine or war could drive the public toward some future food. Most thoughtful critics of genetically modified foods aren’t opposed to scientific advances in the food industry -- what we fear are the unintended consequences of an unregulated industry that has lied to us in the past about the safety of these products.

Dale Jennings

Boulevard, Calif.