It’s time for a bigger conversation about genetic engineering in food and farming – one that turns down the noise on the debate by bringing in wider perspectives. On this site you’ll find news, views and links to help make the discussion more open, constructive and forward thinking.

Genetic Technologies in Food and Farming – A Manifesto

Genetically engineered organisms in agriculture are, first and foremost, a food system and environmental issue. In recent years the UK government has sought to recontextualise them as a science and innovation issue divorced from their real world uses and consequences. Our 2024 manifesto calls for GMOs to be put back in their rightful context and for this to be the basis for rational policy and regulation of agricultural genetic technologies.

Webinar series

Gene Editing Regulation - Acknowledging Uncertainty

As the UK and EU consider deregulation of gene edited organisms in food and farming, a persistent criticism has been government and policymakers’ failure to acknowledge or take account of uncertainties inherent in deregulation, and the role that uncertainty plays in determining risk, safety, sustainability and appropriateness.

This failure is, in part, a result of decision-makers’ reliance on a very narrow range of specialist scientific advisors – the very opposite of what is needed in a post-normal science era, where the stakes are high and science is less able to bring certainty to complex issues, and where greater uncertainty demands consideration of the wider landscape and of views and inputs from a more diverse pool of expertise.

Join us as we as we explore some of the facets of uncertainty which sit at the intersection of genetic technologies and the agricultural and natural environment relevant to a 'fit for purpose' regulatory discourse.

Note: In spite of YouTube's insistence on providing "context" this is not a webinar about climate change.