GM crop have been the subject of many protests

An inquiry has been launched into the damage to GM oilseed rape plants at Wester Friarton Farm, Newport-on-Tay, in north Fife.

Protesters said the plants had been chopped down overnight as part of an ongoing campaign, in which another farm-scale GM crop trial at Daviot, Aberdeenshire, was damaged last weekend.

The action is the latest setback to Scotland's GM crop programme, during which the Scottish Executive abandoned a farm scale trial at Munlochy, on the Black Isle, following pressure from campaigners.

Public health

In January the Scottish Parliament's Health and Community Care Committee published a report that cast doubt on the executive's claims that there was no risk to human health linked to GM crops.

The report, which was welcomed by protest groups such as the Munlochy Vigil, claimed public health risk assessment procedures were "flawed" and voiced alarm over monitoring procedures.

A spokeswoman for the Fife protesters said: "That massive swathe of dark green now scythed across the bright yellow slope of the flowering field is a shout of the people's defiance against the madness of GM farming.

"It expresses people's serious fears for the safety of public health, for consumers' right to choose GM-free food and their fears of a long-term environmental catastrophe."