The Soil Association has expressed its disappointment with Defra announcement that it will introduce new legislation to support precision breeding and stressed the importance of protecting consumer confidence.
Soil Association Director of Policy Brendan Costelloe said: “We are disappointed with Defra’s commitment to push forward with PBOs (precision bred organisms) 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 to 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 Precision Bred (Genetic Technologies) Act are being declared as PBOs.
- Mandatory requirements for the identification and traceability of PBO’s 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: “Defra’s own public consultation 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.”
