Action: Oppose plans to grow GM plants with human genes CLOSED

The camelina plants will include synthetic copies of human, cattle, mouse and goat genes. The risks and ethical issues this raises aren’t properly considered in the application and for many people it simply crosses a line so shouldn’t be allowed.

The application doesn’t actually say what will be planted. Instead it lists over 130 different genes that will be combined as the genetic engineers see fit over the next five years. Different genes interact with each other in often unexpected ways so no GM field trial should be considered until it is clear exactly how the plants involved have been changed.

The omega 3 oils produced by these GM plants are not naturally present in the the land-based ecosystem. Canadian scientists fed similar oils to three different land-based insect species and all three of them were significantly affected. This suggests that growing the GM plants may well affect the natural wildlife in the area of the trial.

The camelina plants have also been engineered to produce what the application describes as “milk fats”. There is no discussion in the application of the potential risks this could cause for the many people who are allergic to cow’s milk, or the ways in which it could disrupt the ecosystem.

Some of the GM plants will produce ultra-long polyunsaturated fatty acids for pharmaceutical use. “Pharma” crops should not be grown in open fields – they should be kept in a contained environment like a greenhouse.

More needs to be done to stop seed or pollen with modified genes escaping from the trial. The application doesn’t recognise that camelina is grown in the UK for commercial use and as a cover crop. The trial plan doesn’t manage the risk of GM camelina pollen being spread by wind and insects, including honey bees.

A key aim of this project is to produce omega 3 oils for the fish farming industry. When the first GM camelina trials were planted in 2014 we were told that it wasn’t viable to source the oils directly from the algae that naturally produce them but that is exactly what has happened. EPA and DHA oils are now being produced commercially – and sustainably – from natural marine microalgae. There is no justification for this GM project because those who have chosen to work with nature (rather than trying to overpower it) have got there first.

If the GM camelina is ever approved for commercial use, high quality arable land that could be used to grow food will be turned into an open-air factory producing additives for industrial fish farms and/or pharmaceuticals. That’s not the future we want for our food, or our farms.