Government response to Select Committee report

The UK Government has today published its response to the Environmental Audit Committee report on sustainable food. In it, the Government dismisses the Committee’s call for additional controls on the cultivation of GM crops in the UK, and reaffirms its support for a science-based approach to policy-making on the subject of agricultural biotechnology.

Commenting on the report, Dr Julian Little, Chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council (abc), said:

“The Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s report reiterates the UK’s forward-thinking and evidence-based approach to policy-making on the use of new technologies in agriculture. This balanced position is a welcome contrast to the political intransigence that characterises decision making at a European level.

The challenge posed to the global food supply by climate change and an increasing world population means that we need as many tools as possible to help us grow more food in a sustainable way. Whilst not a silver bullet, biotechnology is one of a number of ways in which we can improve yields whilst reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture; reduced spraying, cutting carbon emissions and conserving soil and water.

abc strongly welcomes the Government’s support for a fact-based, rational approach to assessing new technologies and how they might benefit farmers at home and abroad”