Social factors, justice and ethics are valid considerations

Comment (30 Oct 2014)

Press contact Liz O’Neill tel: 0845 217 8992 email: liz@gmfreeze.org

Commenting on an open letter from plant scientists backing GM, GM Freeze Director Liz O’Neill said:

Those working with GM regularly complain that crop approvals are ‘blocked by politics’ but social factors, justice and ethics are perfectly valid considerations in food and farming policy. The GM crops currently queueing up for EU approval have all the same downsides as the ones rejected by the UK Government’s own Farm Scale Evaluations and we have a right to say that we don’t want to grow food in a way that harms wildlife or hands control over to a few patent holders. We also need to invest more in agroecological approaches that work with nature and support the small-scale farmers who feed the vast majority of the world’s population.