Gene editing gives farmers food for thought

A BATTLE over the future of food will be launched today when Environment Secretary George Eustice announces a consultation on gene editing for agriculture.

He will tell the Oxford Farming Conference that gene editing offers the prospect of better crops, lower costs and reduced use of pesticides.

But he risks triggering a row similar to that over the introduction of GM ( genetically modified) food.

The Government insists gene editing is different from GM. It says gene editing sees scientists remove the parts of an organism’s DNA that lead to unwanted traits.

It insists this is different from GM in which DNA from one species is added to another – to make it resistant to a particular weedkiller for example.

The European Court of Justice ruled in 2018 that gene editing had to be regulated in the same way as GM, but Brexit allows the UK to treat the two differently.

Kierra Box, of Friends of the Earth, condemned the move. She said: “Gene editing is not similar to genetic modification, it is genetic modification.”

However Tom Bradshaw, vice president of the National Farmers’ Union, said: “New precision breeding techniques such as gene editing have the potential to offer huge benefits to UK farming.”

Mr Eustice will tell the conference: “Gene editing has the ability to harness the genetic resources that mother nature has provided, in order to tackle the challenges of our age.

“This includes breeding crops that perform better, reducing costs to farmers and impacts on the environment and helping us all adapt to the challenges of climate change.”