Innogen's founding director calls on the Scottish Government to reconsider its opposition to genetically modified crops

Speaking to Daily Telegraph reporter Max Stephens, the founding director of Innogen Prof Joyce Tait said that rejection of legislation currently under consideration in England that would allow the cultivation and sale of genetically modified products would mean Scotland would lose out.

Gene editing allows researchers to develop new plant varieties that could also be produced by conventional cross-breeding methods, but much more quickly. Developing varieties that are more resistant to drought, disease and pests will increase productivity and reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. Although years of research show that the technology is safe, and although it has been used on crops outside the EU for more than 20 years, the Scottish Government is keen to comply with EU regulations, which are among the strictest in the world. "Adopting a more proportionate approach to the regulation of gene edited crops will help reduce the adverse impact of agriculture on the environment and mitigate climate change; even the EU is considering bringing forward similar legislation for crops produced with new genomic technologies to meet its net zero target by 2050," says Joyce Tait, founding director of the Innogen Institute at the University of Edinburgh.

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Published article in The Daily Telegraph