GM Crops
This page gives information about the current position on GM crops and the Government’s policy, including Defra’s plans for managing the coexistence of GM and non-GM farming.
Latest publications
12 August 2009 - Follow-up to the Food Matters report
The Government’s ‘Food Matters’ report published in July 2008 included two parallel action points for Defra and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) on genetically modified (GM) food and animal feed. The action points were as follows:
'Defra, working with the FSA, will publish an analysis of the potential impacts on the livestock sector arising from global food trends in GM production and the current operation of the GM approval system in the EU...
In parallel, the FSA, working with Defra, will publish an analysis of the extent to which changes in the market are putting a strain on the regulatory system for GM products (including animal feed) and the implications for UK consumers'.
Defra and the FSA have published a joint paper on the work they have undertaken in response to these points. See:
- What is the potential to replace imported soya, maize and maize by-products with other feeds in livestock diets? (paper by ADAS Ltd) (PDF 350KB)
- Assessing the impact of GM animal feed restrictions in the UK/EU livestock sectors (paper by George Philippidis) (PDF 700KB)
- GM Analysis Project – Supply Chain Segregation – Literature Review (paper by Promar International) (PDF 750KB)
- GM Analysis Project – Segregation of Supply Chain (paper by Promar International) (PDF 600KB)
- Defra feed import project: summary of modelling work (paper by Defra) (PDF 100KB)
- Defra feed import project: summary of work on farm-level impacts (paper by Defra) (PDF 100KB)
- Summary of coexistence consultation responses (PDF 100 KB) (November 2007)
- Errata letter about coexistence consultation sent to stakeholders 1 August 2006 (PDF 10 KB)
- Defra consultation paper on coexistence (July 2006) (PDF 430 KB)
In addition, Defra has published several specific outputs from its analysis project. See:
Babkground
GM policy
The Government’s overall policy on GM crops was set out in a Parliamentary statement in March 2004.
The Government has concluded that there is no scientific case for a blanket ban on the cultivation of GM crops in the UK, but that proposed uses need to be assessed for safety on a case-by-case basis. The Government will continue to take a precautionary approach and only agree to the commercial release of a GM crop if the evidence shows that it does not pose an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment.
Various types of GM crop plant have been grown for research and development purposes at a number of field sites in England since 1993, but there has been no commercial cultivation of GM crops. See:
Co-existence
If approved GM crops are grown here commercially, farmers may need to take special measures to ensure that they can coexist with non-GM production. The aim will be to minimise unwanted mixing of GM and non-GM crops so that people can choose between GM, conventional and organic products.
In 2006 Defra issued a consultation paper on proposed coexistence measures for England to which over 11,000 responses were received from stakeholder groups and members of the public. Defra has published a summary of the responses and made a written Parliamentary Statement to confirm its position following the consultation exercise. See:
Earlier Information
The following documents provide further background on GM crops policy and coexistence:
Page last modified 24 August, 2009