DEFRA: Coexistence of GM, conventional and organic crops

The Royal Society recently responded to Defra's consultation on proposals for managing the coexistence of GM, conventional and organic crops. Our response highlights the Society's previous reports on this subject, in particular the conclusion from the Society's 2002 report on 'Genetically modified plants for food use and human health' that given the very long history of consuming DNA from a wide variety of sources, it is very unlikely that the additional ingestion of GM DNA has an effect on human health. The response also highlights that the best scientific evidence should be used to inform the coexistence regimes and that these should be periodically reviewed as the evidence base expands.