Genetically-engineered crops to be grown in England's farms for first time

Date:10-01-2024

Crops which have been genetically edited will be grown in farms across England under new laws to be announced by the Government.

Tomatoes engineered to provide more vitamin D and sugar beet which requires less pesticide will be among the first plants with modified DNA.

Food Security Minister Daniel Zeichner said: ″With these measures, our agriculture sector will be at the forefront of innovation across the world.″

The legislation will allow the use of gene editing to create crops designed to be more nutritious, resistant to pests and disease and able to cope with the effects of climate change.

The technique, known as precision breeding, can only produce plants that could theoretically have developed naturally through breeding. It is distinct from full-blown genetic modification, which can include the introduction of genes from entirely different species.

Even so, the measure is likely to be controversial and 87 percent of people who took part in a consultation by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2021 said they believed gene-edited food would be harmful to human health.
The National Farmers Union backs the changes, and told the consultation that new laws ″be a critical part of meeting climate change targets, addressing health and nutrition challenges, increasing environmental protection, improving resource use efficiency and building food security.″

Genetically-edited crops that already exist in other parts of the world include soybean oil with reduced saturated fat sold in the US and a tomato sold in Japan that accumulates a chemical that lowers blood pressure. Others in development include fruit without seeds, which it is thought will be popular with consumers.

The former Conservative government introduced legislation allowing gene-edited crops to be grown by removing them from the strict regulations governing genetically modified food. However the law was never put into effect.

Mr Zeichner will tell the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London that the Labour government will introduce legislation allowing genetically-edited crops to be rolled out across the country.

He said: ″This Government recognizes that food security is national security. But after 14 years of Conservative rule, confidence amongst farmers is at record lows.″

Only plants will be included initially but gene-editing of animals could also be allowed in the future, for example to create animals that are highly-resistant to disease.