UK: Guidance on GMOs that "could have arisen through natural processes" is vague, unscientific, and irresponsible |
ACRE guidance document opens the door to a Wild West of unregulated GMO plantings. Report by Claire Robinson; technical advice by Dr Michael Antoniou
| The UK government's Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) has published its guidance on GM techniques that produce a hypothetical class of GMOs that it claims "could have been produced by traditional breeding techniques or could have arisen through natural processes".
The guidance, which is not legally binding, follows on from the statutory instrument passed by the Westminster government that exempts from the controls of the GMO regulations certain new GM plants ("qualifying higher plants" or QHPs) produced with technologies such as gene editing, for research purposes and other non-marketing uses, if the developers claim that they "could have" arisen naturally. Developers who intend to grow these experimental crops in fields will be allowed to self-determine if their plants are QHPs and they do not have to submit evidence to prove that they are.
We found the guidance shockingly irresponsible in three aspects: Its wide-ranging scope, its wilful disregard of the science that underpins new GM technologies, and its vague and imprecise language. In total, the document legitimises a "Wild West" of unregulated plantings by any Tom, Dick or Harry who is seized by a whim to play around with GMOs. The document is lazy, complacent and politically driven, and is clearly written to fulfil a predetermined agenda to smooth the path to market for a new generation of experimental GMOs.
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