19/February/22

 

A statutory instrument (SI) has been laid that will change the law to make it easier for GMO developers to conduct open field trials of "new style" GMOs in England. Statutory instruments are a form of secondary legislation which do not require debate. Often they are just quietly nodded through into law. This statutory instrument makes important changes to the Genetically Modified Organisms (Deliberate Release) Regulations 2002 – and through these it changes provisions for environmental releases of GMOs in the UK's Environmental Protection Act 1990. If passed, it will remove the requirement for scientists and others to seek permission to plant experimental gene-edited crops in open fields, without notifying the public or neighbouring farmers and without any risk assessment or post-release monitoring. These changes are too important to make quietly and without a full debate. Writing to your MP to ask them to object to such changes will send a strong message that it is not appropriate for major legislative changes, with far-reaching implications for food and farming, to be made in this way. Take action now – a sample email has been prepared for you. Beyond GM

 

 

The chair of the House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee was interviewed on the BBC's Farming Today programme about the Committee’s concerns about the statutory instrument (see above). He is highly critical of the government's moves to deregulate GMO field trials via secondary legislation – before a definition the type of GMOs that the government wants to exempt from regulation is even in place. BBC Sounds (relevant segment is at 08:40 mins)

 

 

Researcher Colin Todhunter has published a free e-book with the above title that sets out some key current trends affecting food and agriculture. It begins by looking at the Gates Foundation’s promotion of a failing model of industrial, GMO chemical-intensive agriculture and the deleterious impacts it has on indigenous farming and farmers, human health, rural communities, agroecological systems and the environment. Alternatives to this model are discussed, focusing on organic agriculture and agroecology. Global Research