The situation with GM within the EU has been quiet and off the public’s radar for the best part of a decade but things are rapidly changing. The Government is making very positive noises on GM as a strand in “sustainable intensification” while field trials have once again been undertaken in the UK. The moves within the EU this summer to allow member states to permit, restrict or ban GM cultivation in their territories is currently passing through the EU legislative process and would potentially open the way for the UK to go it alone in commercial production of GM crops.
However, there is no agreement on co-existence measures or liability, which have not been discussed publicly in the UK for several years, and the devolved administrations have very different views on the commercial growing of GM crops from Defra. While all this is going on we still continue to import and feed GM animal feedstock to our animals with the resulting products (milk, meat, eggs etc.) unlabelled in our shops.
