Citizen views are integral to ensuring that technologies and science responds to the needs and wants of society at large. Our new review concludes it’s time to make meaningful citizen engagement part of the DNA of the regulatory process.
The public wants gene-editing regulated – the government should listen
Anything can happen between now and the final version of the new Precision Breeding Bill. But government seems to have taken to heart the suggestion from last year’s Regulatory Horizons Council report to apply “creative use of guidelines, standards [and] policies” to see if it’s possible to get it right (or get away with it).
Deregulating GMOs in the UK – New Report ‘Fills in the Blanks’ in Defra’s Plans
A new analysis by A Bigger Conversation suggests that, in its haste to deregulate agricultural gene technologies, the UK government is “choosing to get it wrong” by ignoring expertise from all sides.
The AgroEcoTech Trap
Technology isn’t values neutral and treating it as if it is diminishes discussions around innovation and appropriateness and diverts from much needed dialogue around sustainability and sufficiency.
Are gene-editing technologies traditional? Not if they are linked to intellectual rights
The recent Defra public consultation on the regulation of genetic technologies suggested that gene editing was the same as ‘traditional plant breeding’. But, says Kathleen Garnett, if its patented its not traditional.
New paper: Policy and Regulation of New Genetic Technologies – Editing or Evisceration?
EU and UK attempts to change genome editing regulations could have opened the door to interesting, even productive discussions. Instead they have further entrenched the unhelpful polarisation of early GMO debates.
A crossroads for ‘genome editing’ in Europe – questions, options and dilemmas
A new policy briefing from the Genome Editing and Agriculture: Policies, Practices and Public Perceptions (GEAP3) project discusses choices and dilemmas facing policy makers and societal stakeholders in the European Union and the United Kingdom asks bigger questions.
Survey: Genome editing in food and farming – the campaigning landscape
The results of our latest survey indicate that amongst the UK’s food and farming organisations, a new dynamic is at play which is less cohesive, less engaged, more cautious or hesitant than was expressed by many of these same groups in the early days of genetic engineering in agriculture.
Survey: Citizen’s attitudes to genome editing in food and farming
Our Citizen’s Attitudes to Genome Editing in Food and Farming survey examined the attitudes on genome editing in food and farming – and in particular issues around regulation. Some of the answers were all too familiar, but some showed a greater understanding and willingness to consider nuance.
Sustainability, regulation and co-existence top the agenda
Panellists at our recent webinar Sense, Science and Sustainability tackled the question of genetic engineering in food and farming through a sustainability lens– leading to some surprising admissions. Co-hosted with […]