Science will play an increasingly crucial role in the UK’s food and farming industry over the next few years - but the role of genetic modification in the future is still a contentious one.
Leading experts, speaking at last week’s World Fruit & Vegetable Show 2008, remain divided as to whether GM crops have a viable future in the UK’s farming industry.
Plant scientist Professor Greg Tucker from the University of Nottingham told the audience that GM “represents one of many tools to help solve future food and nutritional security problems”.
“There has been concern voiced over these technologies and people claim it is not as predictable as we might state, “ he said. “The majority of scientific evidence and opinion suggests the technology is safe - but there are some claims for potential problems and these need to be investigated.
“As with all technology, GM can provide benefits, but we have to use it wisely, cautiously and with the convent of society.”
But Peter Melchett, policy director for the Soil Association, told delegates that, in his opinion, GM research is not justified. “There are no quick fixes with GM - it doesn’t deliver answers to the questions we need answering. Genetic engineering has the whole world market against it. This is business - it’s not science, it’s not food, and it is not about answering issues of climate change or dietary health. England has a pro-GM government surrounded by anti-GM nations.”
Although insisting that science is of fundamental importance to the food and farming industries, Melchett argued that conventional breeding can achieve the same results as GM techniques. The issues of climate change and health will force changes in the way the UK farms, distributes and values its food.
“The government’s climate change committee wants to cut the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050,” he said. “In the future, the public will need to eat seasonal, organic and local food, meaning less meat and dairy and more fresh fruit and vegetables, bought whole and cooked at home.”
Melchett argued that organic farming could feed everyone on the planet. “British farming doesn’t feed the world - we have had 50-60 years of industrial farming and cheap food and we are over-eating and our system has serious problems. We need to change what we eat, how we grow things and how we distribute it.
“More science is needed as evidence, but if the whole world went organic, food production would go up slightly.”
Dr Helen Ferrier, chief science and regulatory affairs adviser for the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), said that GM is not on the radar for most UK growers, who have no access to the technology. She called for greater links between growers and the research undertaken on their behalf. “The pipeline from fundamental research to something growers can use on the ground has been broken,” she said. “We need research to make a difference.
“There are a lot of skills and expertise out there and the UK is a leader in plant science - at least, it was. We need to maintain that and we need science and research that is relevant to the growers here.
“Growers are businesses; they can’t risk being innovators, and can’t afford for something not to work. For our members, this has to be a commercial reality.”
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