João Menezes, 56, the farmer-owner of Herdade da Lameira, told Lusa news he felt ‘outraged’ at the act of vandalism which destroyed his GM culture.

‘This is my wife and my sons’ keep. This is all I have for a living. If you cut my crop, I starve. Someone has to pay for this,’ said the farmer, assuring that everything was above board and inspected by the ministry of Agriculture.

The engineer responsible for overseeing his GM crop, Luís Grifo, expressed his ‘repugnance’ at the actions of the environmentalists assuring that Board of Crop Protection had inspected the crop.

‘The only reason why anyone knows that this is a GM crop is because everything was done by the book, everyone was notified and the neighbours were alerted,’ explained Luís Grifo.

The engineer said that in Portugal ‘corn can only be produced three months in the year’ and for the rest of the year it is dependent on imported corn, 90 per cent of which is genetically modified.

About 100 activists from Portugal and abroad invaded the property shouting ‘No to GM!’ They were finally expelled by the GNR police and the farmer.

The activists wore cloths around their faces, as they put it, to protect themselves from the transgenic pollen.

After leaving the razed property at about 1pm they marched on Poço Barreto village to raise awareness against transgenic products, always escorted by GNR police.

The activists carried banners which read ‘Transgenic danger of contamination’ and ‘No transgenics in the Algarve’.

The action was organised by the environmental movement Verde Eufémia, and was supported by some local residents and biological farmers who are against the use of GM crops.