Defra will introduce new legislation to support precision breeding (GMO)

The Soil Association has responded to today's announcement by Defra that it will introduce new legislation to support precision breeding.

Soil Association Director of Policy Brendan Costelloe said: “We are disappointed with Defra's commitment to push forward with PBOs in spite of public opinion, and the risks this could pose to our ability to trade organic produce. It is, therefore, vital to both consumer confidence and the organic sector that the right statutory instruments are now put in place ensure full transparency of PBOs with clear labelling to reassure and protect consumer choice, secure the organic and GMO Free sector and protect trade. We are absolutely determined to work with Defra to deliver these reassurances.

“This is critical for the entire organic food sector to maintain the legal standards required and to ensure that the thousands of organic businesses in the UK can trade with Europe and with other countries who have exclusions on Genetically Modified Organisms including PBOs. We must avoid any barriers to consumer choice and trade at all costs – the organic food sector is worth over £3.2 billion."

The Soil Association has been consistent in calling for the following to be introduced in the statutory instruments:

• An appropriate, robust notification and registration system for gene-edited products to ensure that only products that meet the requirement of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023, are being declared as PBOs.
• Mandatory requirements for the identification and traceability of PBOs in a supply chain – to be appropriate for all supply chains and include requirements when used in breeding and along generations and to enable them to be excluded where specific supply chains, like organic, require it.
• Appropriate risk assessments (to include risks to the environment, biodiversity and animal welfare) of the genetic changes taking place before they can be released or sold as food or feed (with enough information released to enable analysis to be carried out to identify/verify their presence in a product).
• Identification (i.e labelling) at the point of sale of products containing GE ingredients to enable consumers and supply chains to make a choice of whether to use them or not.

Brendan said: “The Food Standards Agency's own research showed that 85% of the public had genuine misgivings about gene-editing and its long-term unforeseen implications and wanted to see clear labelling of any foods containing GE ingredients and robust system of tracing and licensing producers using GE ingredients.”

Communicating our concerns to Defra

Following the announcement, we joined forces with the organic sector and other GM campaigning groups to outline our key concerns in a letter to Daniel Zeichner, the Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Many thanks to GM Freeze, Beyond GM, GMWatch, the Scottish Organic Stakeholders Group, the English Organic Forum, Nourish Scotland, Biodynamic Federation Demeter International, Biodynamic Association, UK Organic and Organic Farmers & Growers for your contributions.

Have your say as an organic business!

Soil Association Certification is calling on its clients and other trade partners to join us in writing to the Minister of State for Environment and Rural Affairs asking him to consider the potential impacts of inadequate secondary legislation and to ensure that the implementation of the Act is fit for purpose. 

To assist, we have made a template letter, the content of which is based on our recent communication sent to the Minister of State on behalf of the organic sector for you to use, should you wish to share our concerns with the Minister.  

Download the letter using this link