Gene Edited crops coming to the uk

cb387

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cotswolds
Never mind that the technology must be years away but :

The production of gene-edited crops is to be sped up to help guarantee British food supplies in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine.
Russian blockades are preventing the export of key goods such as wheat from the country, leading to rising food prices and shortages globally.
Amid concern over the UK's food self-sufficiency, the Government will this week introduce a Bill which will allow farms to grow more crops by planting variants that have been edited to be more resistant to disease or need less water or fertiliser.
Although plans for the Bill have been in place since Brexit, a government source said it had taken on added importance in the wake of Ukraine.
Asked about the impact of the conflict on the plans, the source said: “It’s always been quite prominent as a big Brexit benefit. But also yes - it could be good news for food security in terms of developing crops that are more resistant to disease.”
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, told The Telegraph: “Precision technologies allow us to speed up the breeding of crops that have a natural resistance to diseases and climate change, and better use of soil nutrients so we can have higher yields with fewer pesticides and fertilisers. Water scarcity is a coming challenge with climate change, and this technology could therefore be imperative to global food security.”
George Eustice

George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, told The Telegraph this technology 'could be imperative to global food security' CREDIT: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
Food security is also going to be a prominent part of the national food strategy White Paper expected to be published next month.
The plans were due to be unveiled earlier this year but were delayed because of the invasion and the paper will now place increased emphasis on food security.
Ministers are understood to be considering introducing targets for the domestic production of food.
Britain is heavily reliant on food imports, which makes it more vulnerable to food inflation caused by global fluctuations in prices.
Last week, Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, warned of the “apocalyptic” impact Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was having on food prices and supplies.
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“That is a major worry and it is not just a major worry for this country, it is a major worry for the developing world as well. Sorry for being apocalyptic but that is a major concern,” he told MPs at a Treasury Select Committee.
Andrzej Duda

Polish President Andrzej Duda addresses the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv on Sunday CREDIT: Shutterstock/ANDRII NESTERENKO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
It comes as Andrzej Duda, Poland’s prime minister, became the first foreign leader to address Kyiv's parliament in person on Sunday, where he warned the country not to give in to Putin.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence sought to play down advances in Severodonetsk after Russia deployed “Terminator” tank support vehicles in the Donbas region.
And on Monday, Boris Johnson will visit a school where Ukrainian children have enrolled after fleeing the war.
In an open letter to the children of Ukraine, released on Sunday night, Mr Johnson said he was “very sad” to see youngsters absent from the streets and parks of Kyiv when he visited the capital last month, adding: “I cannot imagine how difficult this year must have been for you.”
He wrote: “Since the invasion, many of you have been forced to flee your homes. You have left behind family, friends, pets, toys and all that is familiar, seeking refuge in underground stations, distant cities, even other countries. I cannot imagine how difficult this year must have been for you.”

The UN has estimated that 1.7 billion people in 100 countries will be impacted by a fall in grain supplies this year from Ukraine, known as the breadbasket of Europe, and Russia.
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The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill will be presented to Parliament this week, and have its second reading in two weeks’ time. It is hoped that it will be made law later this year with the first GE foods on supermarket shelves by next year.
The Bill was outlined in the Queen’s Speech and is designed to “remove unnecessary barriers inherited from the EU” as well as boosting food production in the UK.
The use of the technology was initially scuppered by a 2018 ruling from the European Court of Justice that determined it should be regulated in the same way as genetic modification (GM).
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
I have no problem at all with the technology involved in Genetic Editing (Genetic Modification is a different thing entirely), but I suspect it will mostly be used to increase big pharma's profits.
However, I don't think that's any reason to outlaw the technology, or to export the research into it. A truly forward thinking government would fund the research so that it was used for the good of humanity, rather than for profit, but fat chance of finding one of those.
 
They always say "Follow the money" so here's what i think. Gene editing/ GM foods / seeds etc is all getting done so that some multi millionaire somewhere can patent it and make a load of money from it, and then, at a later date, control the food supply. Because i bet you, once they've 'fiddled' with the genes in any seed, it will 'accidentally' kill off any heirloom plant it cross pollinates with. Just my amateur gardener's opinion....😮
 

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
I have no problem at all with the technology involved in Genetic Editing (Genetic Modification is a different thing entirely), but I suspect it will mostly be used to increase big pharma's profits.
However, I don't think that's any reason to outlaw the technology, or to export the research into it. A truly forward thinking government would fund the research so that it was used for the good of humanity, rather than for profit, but fat chance of finding one of those.

What is the difference between modification and editing, I have no idea?

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neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
What is the difference between modification and editing, I have no idea?

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GM involves splicing in a bit of DNA from another species, such as a the glyphosate resistant plant into a cereal’s DNA.

GE is editing the DNA of a species by removing material.

Essentially, everything that can be accomplished by GE, could be accomplished through normal selective breeding, albeit a lot more slowly, which is a definition used by many countries that all GE but not GM.
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
They always say "Follow the money" so here's what i think. Gene editing/ GM foods / seeds etc is all getting done so that some multi millionaire somewhere can patent it and make a load of money from it, and then, at a later date, control the food supply. Because i bet you, once they've 'fiddled' with the genes in any seed, it will 'accidentally' kill off any heirloom plant it cross pollinates with. Just my amateur gardener's opinion....😮
How is that different from other non GM GE seed breeding?
 
I think that plants grown from heirloom seeds go 'to seed', and then you can save those seeds, plant them, and replicate the original plant. Costs nothing.
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
And every field that has these plants as volunteers becomes a GE crop so subject to the same royalties.
Pretty sure that's not true. Happy to be proved wrong.
I think that plants grown from heirloom seeds go 'to seed', and then you can save those seeds, plant them, and replicate the original plant. Costs nothing.
If you buy a seed that is under patent, you can't harvest that crop and save it for seed as I understand it. I don't really see anything wrong with that.
I think some of the early GM patents have ended.

The way some of these large companies use this tech isn't great but I don't think that means we shouldn't have the tech in the first place.
I don't think there would be anything stopping you purchasing a licence to use CRISPR and developing your own seed?
Perhaps TFF should start its own seed research company?
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Pretty sure that's not true. Happy to be proved wrong.

If you buy a seed that is under patent, you can't harvest that crop and save it for seed as I understand it. I don't really see anything wrong with that.
That's exactly what Monsanto and others have done in the USA. There was a widely publicised test case where an organic grower was taken to court for refusing to pay royalty on home saved seed which had cross-pollinated with the GM crop grown by the farmer next door. Their argument was that he should have left a big enough sterile strip around his own land to prevent it. They'd trespassed to take samples from his crop to do DNA testing on and found about 0.2% of their proprietary DNA iirc.

The way some of these large companies use this tech isn't great but I don't think that means we shouldn't have the tech in the first place.
See above!

This is the issue. If the technology was open source, paid for by government, i'd have less issue with it but the main idea behind the commercial developers is to capture even more of the farm income. It seems it's NOT about improving the world, that's just their convenient smokescreen....
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
That's exactly what Monsanto and others have done in the USA. There was a widely publicised test case where an organic grower was taken to court for refusing to pay royalty on home saved seed which had cross-pollinated with the GM crop grown by the farmer next door. Their argument was that he should have left a big enough sterile strip around his own land to prevent it. They'd trespassed to take samples from his crop to do DNA testing on and found about 0.2% of their proprietary DNA iirc.


See above!

This is the issue. If the technology was open source, paid for by government, i'd have less issue with it but the main idea behind the commercial developers is to capture even more of the farm income. It seems it's NOT about improving the world, that's just their convenient smokescreen....
Completely agree. Arguing the difference between GM and GE is not the point but is what many industry bods like to focus on.
It’s the vertical integration into farm businesses and income capture which worries me if it’s controlled by the big corporates. I have no issues with these companies I just don’t want to be railroaded into control and packages.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
What is the difference between modification and editing, I have no idea?

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Countryfile ran a piece on it Sunday. First time in yonks I happened to be near the TV on a Sunday when it was on. An first interesting and informative item. Gene Editing is taking bits out of the existing Genome. Genetic modification is adding genetic material into an existing genome. So the former (Gene editing) mimics natural plants breeding but is much quicker and less open to chance, the latter (Genetic Modificiation) is very unlikely to happen naturally. That was he gist of what I picked up.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
it is a long time ago now, but I believe that the level of contamination was so high that he had actually not set his own seed as he claimed but had used seed from another crop .
The case talked of .02% contamination. This was percentage contamination of the DNA which indicated very strongly that this was not just pollen blown in from neighbouring crop, which I believe under US organic rules had to be over 100 metres from his boundary. Rape pollen does not normally travel far.
The very fact that Monsanto pursued him suggests he had been dobbed in by someone who knew that he was not scrupulously honest in his farming.
 

Yale

Member
Livestock Farmer
What’s to stop a chemical company editing in a gene which makes the crop higher yielding but unable to provide a high yield without certain chemicals which they supply.

How would farmers know as it would be all controlled by a fat guy with a mole on his face stroking a white cat. :unsure:
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.2%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.8%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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