Plant scientists want more GM trials and national regulation

Leading plant scientists in the UK have called for a programme of publicly funded field trials of genetically modified crops and for approval of commercial cultivation to be given at the national rather than European level.

Their report, GM Science Update, commissioned by the prime minister’s Council for Science and Technology, was published on 14 March.

The proposed nationwide R&D programme of field trials, which the scientists call PubGM (or Public Enterprise GM), would allow academic findings about GM to be transferred to crops in the field and on the market, the report says. “The UK has world-leading basic research in plant genomics but this is not being exploited to its best advantage…A well-functioning R&D pipeline is essential for the translation of genomic research through the pre-breeding stage into the development of crop varieties for the marketplace.”