The humble aubergine has been the staple of Indian cuisine since antiquity. I can tell you that as I’ve grown up trying to avoid it but eventually it just makes its way on your dinner plate if you spend time in India. The Americans, who like to call the aubergine as ‘eggplant’ are trying to sell Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) bacterium Brinjal to Indians citing increased yields and the usual propaganda associated with genetically modified crops. Honestly though, anything injected with any kind of ‘bacterium’ doesn’t really sound safe, does it?

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Food, Inc. opens on 12th February and features factory farming, making it the ideal Valentine's day date film.

25% of us are obese. GM crops have slipped into our grocery stores and kitchen pantries without us knowing. Our food production systems stress animals, rely on ever-increasing quantities of pesticides, and leave one sixth of the world population without secure access to food. That's the contention of Food Inc, a forthcoming film from the same distributors that brought us ‘End of the Line'. It takes a look under the surface of the US food production industry to examine how we get our food in a modern, mechanized society.

While we don't campaign on food issues, it looks like it'll be pretty interesting - check out more details here: www.foodincmovie.co.uk The film opens on the 12th February, and as with other small but worthy films, (like Age of Stupid, for example) it's the first week that makes the difference in terms of getting rebooked - so maybe go along and check it out. Read more »

It's been another big year for Greenpeace around the world, culminating in the Copenhagen climate summit. Take a look back on some of our best images and stories from 2009.

Last March hundreds of Thai Greenpeace supporters, volunteers and farmers took part in an amazing experiment - to create a giant, beautiful organic work of art in the rice fields of Thailand's Central Plains.

Reyes works for Greenpeace's Research Labratories and is normally based in Exeter but she's just begun a year long project working with our office in India. Reyes already wrote for the blog relay last month but we convinced her to write a monthly update about her adventures in India and here's her first update.

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In a new photo essay, rice farming in southern China is put under the spotlight to show how traditional methods are still working well without any tinkering from the GM industry.

Mr Potato Head makes an appearance in Amsterdam

It sounds like something that would have appeared on the late, lamented Eurotrash but giant potatoes have been spotted recently cycling through the Netherlands. However, it isn't an offbeat continental cultural outing, but a reminder to the Dutch public about the importance of organic farming and the perils of GM technology.

The Philippine rice terraces, a UNESCO Living Cultural Heritage site, has been declared a genetically-modified organism (GMO) free zone

In the world of food staples, rice has a pretty iconic status. Over half of the global population eat it every day. It has been grown around the world for over 10,000 years. It's cultivated in 113 countries. If rice was a pop group, it would be the Beatles.

Chinese farmers are discovering that resurrecting the old tradition of keeping ducks in their rice fields allows them to cut down on the amount of pesticides and artificial fertilisers they need to use to grow their crops.

Government wonks have once again been druming up support for GM food, the latest tub-thumping courtesy of science minister Ian Pearson. He's been saying that if engineered crops can be demonstrated to alleviate hunger around the world, then the great British public will be only too happy to see them being cultivated in our green and pleasant land as well.