Published: 07-07-2025
Too often, research on agricultural biotechnology focuses on citizens as consumers, analysing buying habits, but ignoring bigger issues like the environment, fairness and values that may inform their views. We need a broader, more well-rounded view of citizens that encompasses different perspectives, explores why people may be sceptical and includes citizens in shaping the future of these technologies.
Published: 12-06-2025
A Bigger Conversation will be collaborating with the University of Edinburgh, The Nuffield Council on Bioethics and others on a new project from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA). Part of its Synthetic Plants programme, the aim of the project is to take a holistic approach to designing governance frameworks.
Published: 01-05-2025
As the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) begins its formal deliberations on synthetic biology applications, we find ourselves in a critical window where governance frameworks around the use […]
Published: 18-02-2025
As the UK pushes ahead with plans to deregulate both environmental and commercial releases of gene-edited crops and foods – and, soon, farm animals – this thoughtful long-read considers whether we are building a bright new future or just a more sophisticated form of man-made pollution.
Published: 06-02-2025
Will the 50th anniversary ‘Spirit of Asilomar’ conference on the future of biotechnology recapture the expansive moral considerations of the pre-1975 Asilomar discussion? Or will it serve as the latest effort bolstering professional immunity from public oversight?
Published: 04-02-2025
Artificial intelligence (AI) has permeated nearly every sector of modern life, and the food sector is no exception. Now, new research suggests that consumers remain deeply sceptical about AI’s role in food production, raising serious questions about transparency, safety, and trust.
Published: 18-12-2024
In 2024 we briefly considered – but rejected – a cheeky suggestion to bring back the provocative term ‘Frankenfoods’. The days of that kind of polemic may have passed but, as we note in our year-end reflection, the story of the Modern Prometheus still has something to teach us about foresight and accountability.
Published: 28-11-2024
How important is it for us to trust the food we eat? In this Q&A, food scientist and ethicist Ralph Early argues that trust and honesty are fundamental to the relationship between governments, citizens and food producers and should inform how we interact with the environment and regulate emerging food technologies.
Published: 31-10-2024
Engineered rats, facial recognition for wildlife, ‘disestablishment’ of crucial horizon-scanning and disregard for international treaties. As COP16 wraps up in Cali, Colombia, here’s a trick-or-treat guide to what, sort of, just happened.
Published: 01-10-2024
The Royal Agricultural University’s Cultured Meat & Farmers project was a two-year study that examined the potential impact of cultured meat on UK farmers. Now that it’s wrapping up, what did we learn?