At its core, powerful institutions have exploited public confidence and trust that science is produced in a neutral and impartial manner. But when private industry information is not subject to robust debate and challenge, it’s propaganda. Call it what it is and we might be able to start changing things.
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.