Caution! GM ahead

September 2021

Sedated by the GM food labelling and risk assessment requirements of the EU, many British people have been lulled into thinking GM has become a bit of a non-issue. However, just before Covid 19 obliterated all other news, many media outlets were picking up on the real possibility that, post-Brexit, "Supermarkets could be stocked with genetically modified food under future UK-US trade deal" (The Sun). Indeed, some were warning of the risk of a race to the bottom [1] and asking what happened to Westminster's pledge to take back control of our markets [2].

What started it was that, while "Boris Johnson has repeatedly claimed that negative impacts of Brexit will pale in comparison to the benefits" (Lib Dems quoted in PoliticsHome), the government's own figures suggest the 'benefits' could be as low as 0.02% of GDP. The UK Trade Policy Observatory at Sussex University commented "The numbers are very small. It just goes to show how tiny the gains are from a free trade agreement with the US compared to losing our present arrangements with the EU".

To avoid upsetting the public, the Government categorically ruled out involving the NHS in any trade negotiations, while allowing the health and safety issues surrounding US produce (which our Prime Minister has dismissed as "mumbo jumbo"), to be side-lined into the easily explained issues of chlorine-treated chicken and hormone-treated beef. On the subject of GM and food safety, however, the UK's negotiating stance has been over-generalised and elastic: "Any agreement will ensure high standards and protections for consumers and workers, and will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards." (quoted in The Sun)

This is not good news for British farmers who face the double-whammy of their home market being flooded with cheap (GM, and heavily subsidised) American produce just at the same time as their export markets to Europe have vanished.

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) for England and Wales, whose mission is to give farmers a voice, to protect their way of life, to campaign for a stable and sustainable future for British farmers, and to secure them the best deal, has been narrowly focusing on a ban on chlorine-treated chicken. At the same time, despite knowing its members' customers clearly rejected GM foods in the past and have no reason whatsoever to have changed their minds, the NFU is lobbying hard for gene editing. The organisation claims that this unproven GM technology will put the UK "in a world-leading position to showcase sustainable climate-friendly farming " (Blythman). Given the unpredictable disturbances in gene edited genomes increasingly being revealed by science [3,4,5,6], the NFU's wild optimism really doesn't sound like the best deal for farmers. This US-style, high-tech idealism puts the NFU at odds with its sister organisations in Scotland and Northern Ireland which have banned GM crops of all kinds.

As journalist Joanna Blythman warned pre-Brexit:

"if free traders and corporate influencers in Westminster get their way and deregulate the law that currently governs genetic engineering there, gene edited foods could be green lighted, unlabelled, for English plates, so that most people wouldn't realise that they were eating them ... Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would then be put under heavy international corporate pressure to do the same".

Her "bottom line here is that there's a push to slip gene edited food ingredients into our food, unlabelled, most likely sneakily lost in multi-ingredient, ultra-processed foods, on the assumption that they pose no risk. So far, the general public is blissfully unaware of it."

OUR COMMENT

There seems to be a deep suspicion that Westminster is working on a trade off: protect the NHS from US corporate sharks in exchange for welcoming in GMOs and other potentially health-damaging foods. It may be that the NFU sees GM as inevitable and is grasping at any straw it can find to give its members some hope for a successful post-Brexit future for UK agriculture (no matter how absurdly idealistic and hype-driven that straw is). This isn't a reason for farmers' customers to accept it.

GM Watch was not impressed by an 'Explainer' published by DEFRA to guide members of the public who wished to respond to the government's consultation on deregulating gene editing earlier this year: the Explainer was "packed full of false assertions and reads like a 'wish' list' for the GMO lobby, presenting hypothetical 'benefits' of gene editing as facts".

Gene edited foods have NOT been safety tested. This would take a long time and a lot of money. Industry certainly won't do it unless it's forced.

The government needs it's ideas wakened up a bit. Tell it that Covid 19 has been bad enough, now it must protect your health by insisting on comprehensive safety testing of all novel foods.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Right now, it's vital you make clear to the Government that:

• Your concerns about GM foods, including gene-edited versions, are just as great if not greater than ever.
• If food safety rules are, as Boris Johnson insists, "governed by science", regulators must recognise that biotech industry claims about the success and safety of their GM and gene-edited products are not backed up by adequate or independent science. 
• Your health and UK farmers must be protected from American GM food imports. 
• There must be clear and comprehensive labelling of all imported foods so you can choose for yourself what you and your family eat. 
• At the very least, a robust, long-term, labelling, track and trace system in case of a GM-based public health disaster, must be in place.

You can contact your MP at www.writetothem.com

! It might be worth mentioning your renewed concerns on imported GM foods to the CEO of your usual supermarket.


Background

[1] THE BREXIT RACE TO THE BOTTOM - January 2020

[2] WHAT HAPPENED TO TAKING BACK CONTROL? - February 2020

[3] THE PRECISION PROBLEM IN GENE EDITING - August 2021

[4] CRISPR'S EPIGENETIC SCARS - August 2021

[5] CRISPR CATASTROPHE IN THE MAKING? - August 2021

[6] LASER-PRECISE GENE-EDITED ACCIDENT - August 2021

SOURCES:

• GM food issue on the rise again in UK, GM Watch, 3.03.20

• GM GRUB: Supermarkets could be stocked with genetically modified food under future UK-US trade deal, The Sun, 3.03.20

• Ministers vow 'no compromise' on food standards in UK-US deal amid chlorine chicken fears, PoliticsHome, 17.03.20

• Heather Stewart and others, British economy 'to grow 0.6% at best under US trade deal'. Admission lays bare limited benefits of 'ambitious' agreement with Donald Trump, Guardian, 2.03.20

• Joanna Blythman, British people won't thank the NFU for its stance on gene editing, The Grocer, 22.07.20

• Joanna Blythman, If gene editing to 'improve' food sounds too good to be true, that's because it is, The Herald, 22.08.20

• GMWatch publishes its response to UK government consultation of gene editing, GM Watch 12.03.21

• GMWatch mythbuster exposes the UK government misinformation on gene editing, GM Watch 16.02.21

Image by Squirrel_photos from Pixabay