News

Co-op says #NotInMySupermarket to gene-editing

18th February 2021

In response to a civil society appeal for UK supermarkets to back strong regulation of new gene-edited crops and animals, the Co-op has made a clear statement of its support.

Civil society calls on supermarkets to show leadership on GMOs

9th February 2021

Fifty groups and individuals from civil society have written to British supermarkets asking them to show public support for continued regulation of genetically engineered crops and animals.

Public consultation on genome editing is launched

7th January 2021

The UK government’s public consultation on the deregulation of genome editing is now open. There’s a lot of work to do and we will be helping our supporters to respond effectively.

GE deregulation amendment is withdrawn – but there is more work to do

29th July 2020

In its last meeting before the summer recess the House of Lords finally debated Amendment 275 of the Agriculture Bill, which proposed to regulate products of gene editing in the UK. The amendment was withdrawn.

Liberating ‘Agricultural research’? Agriculture Bill update

2nd July 2020

A new amendment to the UK’s Agriculture Bill proposes to deregulate gene edited organisms for ‘agricultural research’. In reality it is a Trojan horse designed deregulate most forms of genome editing.

Take Action: Ask Ministers to reject plans to deregulate genome editing

2nd July 2020

Beyond GM is working with GM Freeze and GMWatch to mobilise supporters to oppose an a attempt, via the Agriculture Bill, to deregulate the use of genome editing in our food or on our farms. Here’s what you can do.

Deregulating GMOs via the Agriculture Bill – what happens next?

18th June 2020

The second reading of the Agriculture Bill in the House of Lords was less of a debate and more of an exercise in priming the pump for the proposed amendment to deregulate GMOs. With support from an uncritical media, expect more to follow.

Regulatory chicanery – Biotech lobby quietly hijacks the UK’s Agriculture Bill to change the definition of ‘GMOs’

28th May 2020

MPs, peers and the research establishment, intent on ‘liberating’ the UK’s agri-bioscience sector, are sidestepping democratic processes to try and change the definition of a GMO to exclude organisms engineered with new gene editing technologies.

Exploring the boundaries of plant breeding

6th April 2020

Our new report from our world cafe The Boundaries of Plant breeding follows the conversations between biotech, conventional and organic plant breeders and finds clashes – but also encouraging areas of agreement.

House of Lords debate on genome editing…what was the point?

6th March 2020

This week the House of Lords ‘debated’ how the UK might regulate genome edited foods post-Brexit. While governments elsewhere are struggling to understand some of the nuances of this issue, here in the UK we are treating it like an afterthought – and that is unacceptable.