Science can be an ally if we want to feed world

Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger tells Defra Secretary George Eustice he is delighted ministers have given the green light to gene editing as a method of fast-tracking plant breeding improvements

DEAR George, I have been rummaging around in the cupboard under the stairs searching for an old tin hat (probably ARP issue) that I keep there because I have the uneasy feeling that I may be in need of it before long.

For I can sense a torrent of opprobrium coming my way as a result of our commendable decision to clear the way for UK plant scientists to step up the work rate on gene editing.

The problem being, as you are probably aware, that no sooner is the word ‘gene’ out of a politician’s mouth than the hysteria kicks off and we are all accused of mucking around with science, creating totally unnatural animal or plant products that will poison all of us and generally hastening the extermination of the entire human race.

All as a result of confusing gene editing with genetic modification.

I can only stress to those who will doubtless be deluging me with letters of protest and demands that I repudiate such a policy that gene editing does not involve splicing in DNA from different species – so the tired old epithet of ‘Frankenstein foods’ cannot legitimately be applied. Though inevitably it will be.

Gene editing, as you know and I know, merely enables us to get down to fundamental cell structure level and bring about changes and improvements to plants which otherwise would have taken years, possibly decades to achieve – and moreover would have involved an awful lot of leaning on gates observing how the latest attempts at selective breeding were coming along.

I’m afraid we don’t have the luxury of time to lean on metaphorical gates given the pace at which climate change is overtaking agricultural systems everywhere. We need now to ensure we can carry on feeding the world in the harsher environments that threaten – and I was particularly pleased to read in the last few days of the success achieved in developing salt-tolerant vegetable strains which are already thriving in those parts of Asia where coastal flooding is becoming more frequent.

I am afraid the European Commission has been something of a sheet anchor on gene editing’s progress, lumping it in with genetic modification and thus making it just as much of a target for those who fear the worst from GM organisms, whereas several other countries have already decided that it is a discrete branch of scientific endeavour and encouraged it. And when you factor in the additional pluses that gene editing can help us develop plants that are not only more nutritious and thus more beneficial to our health but are also disease-and pest-resistant, reducing the need for the use of chemicals in their production then the arguments in favour appear, to say the least, totally overwhelming. Not that will stop some people complaining.

The Government really needs to

get the message out there that we are talking about two separate branches of plant technology because the last thing I want to see is a repeat of those scenes of a few years back of the Luddites ripping up fields of trial crops.

What with labour shortages leading to rotting crops, unpicked daffodils and the appalling slaughter of piglets,the farming world appears to have more than its share of bad news at the moment.

Let’s get this good news out there.

Yours, Ian

We need now to ensure we can carry on feeding the world in the harsher environments that threaten, warns Ian