Written by Charlotte Cunningham
A group of cross-party MPs and Lords are calling on the Government to support changes to the Agriculture Bill which would pave the way for the UK to ditch damaging EU rules blocking access to precision breeding tools vital for agricultural improvement at home and overseas. Charlotte Cunningham reports. The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Science and Technology in Agriculture, chaired by York Outer MP Julian Sturdy, has written to Defra Secretary Rt Hon George Eustice MP, urging the Government to introduce an enabling amendment during the Lords stages of the Bill. The proposed amendment would provide new powers for Ministers to consult on and, if appropriate, make a simple change to the UK Environmental Protection Act giving Britain’s scientists, farmers, plant breeders and animal breeders the same access to new gene editing technologies as their counterparts around the world. In recent years, the All-Party Group has taken a keen interest in prospects for advanced gene editing techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9 to deliver radical improvements in the speed and precision of crop and livestock breeding, opening up significant opportunities to keep pace with demands for increased agricultural productivity, resource-use efficiency, more durable pest and disease resistance, improved nutrition and resilience…
The post Cross-party group leads calls for Ag Bill boost to genetic innovation post-Brexit appeared first on cpm magazine.
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