The Soil Association has hit back hard at the government’s chief scientific adviser after his call for an increase in GM technology in the UK.
Professor John Beddington used his speech at the Oxford Farming Conference to launch a strategy that aims to increase sustainability and improve food security. He said: "For the UK, climate changes are likely to mean altered farming patterns, with summer drought and winter floods.
"The agriculture sector will need to reduce its share of greenhouse gas emissions while safeguarding soil through improved land management practices. There are three ways of increasing agricultural output - expanding acreage, improving yields or increasing frequency of cropping.”
But Emma Hockridge, policy manager of the Soil Association, said: "GM is not going to feed a growing world population sustainably, now or in the future. We need far-reaching changes to our food and farming systems, rather than GM technology, which, despite millions in public and private research expenditure, has consistently failed to deliver food security.
"Climate change and diminishing resources, like oil and phosphates, are impacting negatively on farming, and demand scientific expertise and excellence to tackle them. Research into Marker Assisted Selection, which is now leading the way in new crop developments, is enormously important and should be supported.
"We also need to highlight the contribution that agro-ecological and organic farming, with its lower-oil and chemical inputs, can make, as well as encouraging citizens to adopt sustainable diets that change with the seasons and to support local production - these actions will provide greater resilience for our food supplies than outmoded techno-fixes.
“It is striking that the secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, Hilary Benn, didn’t mention GM in his speech to the Oxford Farming Conference yesterday - this is the most half-hearted and feeble endorsement of GM since the technology arrived 20 years ago."
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