GM Crops
This page gives information about the current position on GM crops and the Government’s policy, including Defra’s plans for managing the coexistence of GM and non-GM farming. See:
GM policy
The Government’s overall policy on GM crops was set out in a Parliamentary statement in March 2004. See:
The Government has concluded that there is no scientific case for a blanket ban on the cultivation of GM crops in the UK, but that proposed uses need to be assessed for safety on a case-by-case basis. The Government will continue to take a precautionary approach and only agree to the commercial release of a GM crop if the evidence shows that it does not pose an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment.
There are currently no GM crops being grown in the UK and no commercial cultivation is expected before 2009 at the earliest. In recent years GM crops have been grown for research and development purposes at a number of sites. The main example of this has been the Farm Scale Evaluation GM crop trials. See:
Co-existence
If approved GM crops are grown here commercially, farmers may need to take special measures to ensure that they can coexist with non-GM production. The aim will be to minimise unwanted mixing of GM and non-GM crops so that people can choose between GM, conventional and organic products.
In 2006 Defra issued a consultation paper on proposed coexistence measures for England to which over 11,000 responses were received from stakeholder groups and members of the public. Defra has published a summary of the responses and made a written Parliamentary Statement to confirm its position following the consultation exercise. See:
-
Summary of coexistence consultation responses (November 2007) (PDF 100 KB)
-
Defra statement on coexistence and associated news release (8 November 2007)
Earlier Information
The following documents provide further background on GM crops policy and coexistence:
Page last modified 8 November, 2007