Genetic improvement of crops
The Royal Society's policy briefing, Enabling Genetic Technologies for Food Security, published on 24 October 2023, examines how the UK can adopt a more proportionate and evidence-based regulatory approach to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This approach aims to support agricultural innovation while ensuring safety and public confidence.
Headline messages from the briefing include:
- Rising food demand, climate change, biodiversity loss, declining arable land, and spread of pests and diseases create a “perfect storm” requiring increased agricultural productivity
- Crop genetic improvement can help deliver this increased productivity and Genetic Modification (GM), where genes are moved between species, enables outcomes that cannot be achieved with other plant breeding techniques, such as resistance to insect pests
- Evidence shows GM technology itself is not inherently risky; risks depend on the specific trait and its use
- The UK has the plant science and plant breeding expertise to use GM to reduce environmental impacts, enhance food security, and lower reliance on imports and agrichemicals
- Outside the EU, the UK can adopt proportionate, trait-based regulation, learning from 30 years of commercial GM use globally
Reccomendations:
- Re-evaluate legacy EU-derived GM regulations in UK law, which currently hinder innovation from publicly funded research
- Implement proportionate regulation based on trait-specific, hypothesis-driven risk assessment, intended use, and environment
- In the short term, allow applications with reduced study requirements where justified, especially for crops already approved elsewhere
- In the long term, adopt an outcomes-based regulatory approach aligned with the 2023 Science and Technology Framework to stimulate innovation while safeguarding citizens
- This work aligns with the UK's goals to enhance food security and agricultural sustainability through innovative technologies
Members of the working group included Jonathan Jones FRS, Cathie Martin FRS, Dale Sanders FRS, David Baulcombe FRS, Giles Oldroyd FRS, Ian Boyd FRS.