Etc...

It seems mistakes were made

In four generations of farming, David Buckton says his family had never seen the likes of what happened one day late last month. He and his son, Chris, were tending to their acreage outside Hull, England, when police on horseback showed up, escorting hundreds of activists from Mutatoes.org in what the group described as "a powerful and vibrant display of resistance" (critics called it "sabotage") to a government-sponsored test in which genetically modified (GM) spuds were to be planted. Some of the activists were dressed as the cartoon figure Mr. Potato Head. All carried shovels. They scattered, digging up the soil and dropping organic potatoes into the holes. The Bucktons tried to tell everyone that the field already was planted in beans. No use. But what about the police? Well, according to Dad, "They said the protest seemed peaceful, so we'd better let them get on with it." Not until afterward did Mutatoes.org acknowledge that the target of its ire was, in fact, a mile away and apologize for having wrecked the wrong farm. It blamed the government for not supplying accurate information on the location of the test field and warned that as long as there were GM trials, "people" would continue to disrupt them. As for the Bucktons, they seem philosophical about it all. "We might," Dad said, "be able to dig up a few potatoes for our dinner."