When it comes to GM crops, the market will decide the extent of growth in the UK but producers need a formal strategy to enable workable co-existence across all sectors.
This was the concluding message of a debate on GM co-existence at a meeting of the NFU Council in Warwickshire this week.
The council has issued a statement in response to a Government consultation exercise on the GM integration, expected to be launched shortly.
The statement backs the co-existence framework recommended by SCIMAC (Supply Chain Initiative on Modified Agricultural Crops), to deliver a 0.9 per cent threshold for accidental presence, with a 0.5 per cent threshold for seeds.
This is based on a code of practice and a redress charter, with statutory separation distances and notification arrangements.
Speaking at the meeting, NFU Vice President, Paul Temple, said: “This is about being prepared for something that may happen in the future. Consumers will decide what they want from us. But we need to keep our options open, and agreeing sensible co-existence rules enables us to do that.”
Temple emphasised that the NFU’s objective in the debate was to ensure the interests or choices exercised by any one group of producers do not prejudice the options of another.
He said: “We are determined that our stance in the GM debate should be based on sound science. But this particular issue is not about the pros and cons of GMs; it is about co-existence, which is a purely economic issue.
“We are well aware of the potential benefits of GMs, but we are equally aware of the concerns that many farmers and growers, particularly in the organic sector, have about the technology and its impacts.”
Temple called for achievable and pragmatic co-existence measures, which protect crop integrity and do not impose impossibly high barriers for either GM or organic producers.
“We consider that the SCIMAC proposals meet those criteria, and that is why we have based our approach to co-existence on them,” he said.
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