Published: 09-02-2026
As the EU revises rules for gene-engineered plants, debate centres on safety, traceability and labelling. Overlooked is patent law’s role in reshaping who can breed plants, on what terms, and with what legal certainty overall.
Farming in the Age of Algorithms: Who Decides How Farmers Think?
Published: 04-01-2026
As farming knowledge shifts from fields to algorithms, digital tools reshape how farmers sense, analyse and act. Whether skills are eroded or strengthened depends not on technology itself, but on design, governance, and farmer inclusion.
Editing Nature – Examining the Illusion of Control
Published: 03-01-2026
Genetic engineering cannot be contained in living systems. From bees to crops, engineered genes and microbes inevitably spread, exposing regulatory blind spots and challenging assumptions of control, precaution and accountability in rapidly deregulating governance frameworks.
Synthetic Human Genomes: Why Good Intentions Aren’t Enough
Published: 05-12-2025
Synthetic human genomes are being developed faster than society can govern them. Good intentions won’t prevent misuse. Without early, values-led scrutiny, we risk creating a technology whose risks become apparent long before its benefits.
Love in the Age of De-extinction
Published: 04-12-2025
We live in a century shaped by loss – of habitats, species and ecological certainty. The idea of reviving extinct creatures can be seductive. But resurrection isn’t just scientific: it is deeply moral, forcing us to ask what a virtuous relationship with nature – based on respect, care and humility – should look like in an age of extinction.
Towards Farmer-Led Technological Sovereignty
Published: 07-11-2025
Farmers don’t want to be separated from their land by screens and algorithms – they became farmers precisely to work outdoors, build community and nurture soil health. The question is: what digital tools actually help farmers who are trying to grow food sustainably while making a living?
The slow reality about “fast” science
Published: 09-10-2025
Our Turbo Charging Nature report explores how the UK’s rush to deregulate gene editing rests on a myth of speed. Drawing on five case studies, it shows that “fast science” has delivered slow results and obscured deeper questions about progress and accountability.
Protecting Nature or Re-engineering It? The IUCN’s Defining Choice
Published: 07-10-2025
As the IUCN World Conservation Congress opens in Abu Dhabi, members face a pivotal choice between embracing genetic engineering as a conservation tool or pausing to apply the precautionary principle to these rapidly advancing technologies.
Rethinking Consumer-Focused Biotechnology Research
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.
New Project to Explore Synbio Governance Framework
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.