Government urged to keep door open to GM and cloning

Publishing the Foresight Report on Food and Farming Futures, some of the leading experts on food security said new technologies would be key to increasing global food production while reducing environmental impact.

It calls for more research and development, warning the decline of agricultural research in recent years was already starting to have a negative impact on food production.

In making its conclusions, the report says: “New technologies (such as the genetic modification of living organisms and the use of cloned livestock and nanotechnology) should not be excluded a priori on ethical or moral grounds, though there is a need to respect the views of people who take a contrary view.”

The authors said policy makers would need to consider issues such as GM not only on safety grounds but also by taking into account the effect of not making use of them.

While GM crops are currently being grown in the US, Africa, South America and Asia, there are no varieties licensed for use in the UK.

At the launch of the report, Defra Secretary Caroline Spelman refused to be drawn into whether that could soon change, but she said the Government is in the process of formalising its position on GM and stressed any decision would be made based on the scientific evidence.

The Foresight report’s conclusions were welcomed by the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (ABC), which called on the UK Government to put a regulatory framework in place which would allow GM to play its part.

ABC chairman Julian Little said: “As the report recognises, GM technology is not a silver bullet that will solve all of the challenges we face on its own, however it is an essential tool in the armoury, and further research and development may herald further advances in dealing with the challenge of demand growth and climate change.”

The anti-GM lobby also welcomed the report, but said GM did not provide the answer and called for other avenues of technology to be investigated.

Friends of the Earth’s food campaigner Kirtana Chandrasekaran said: “This report shines a spotlight on our mounting food and farming crisis that can only be tackled with far-reaching reforms of the world’s food system.

“The report also pins its hope on GM technology when crop science has moved on. Other technologies have delivered drought-resistant plants while GM crops have proved to be a disaster for the environment and farmers.

“Feeding the world without trashing it means supporting small farmers to feed local communities, wasting less and rethinking our diets.”

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