5th August 2019

New developments in GM can sometimes seem very remote to those of us living in the UK, In part that is because we have been protected by strict EU laws about the cultivation and sale of genetically modified crops and foods.

Over the past twenty years or so commercial GM crops like the golden rice in Africa which was supposed to improve eyesight, but didn’t work, or rainbow papayas in Hawaii that contaminated 50% of non-GM papaya or flavr-savr tomatoes designed to not over-ripen but rejected by consumers worldwide, seemed too far away to be worrisome.

But this year, field trials of GM crops including potato, broccoli, brassicas and a false flax plant engineered to produce Omega-3 fish oil in its seeds have just moved much closer to home.

A fresh round of GM field trials, taking place until 2023, has recently gained approval from DEFRA - a signal that, post-Brexit, the UK is gearing up, once again to become a GMO nation.

Fish Oil in Flax

Rothamsted Research is growing Camelina sativa, a  member of the brassica family commonly known as false flax, in Hertfordshire and Suffolk. The plant, which is similar in appearance to its cousin, the yellow-flowered oilseed rape, will be subjected to a “pick and mix” approach to re-engineering with over 100 different elements that could be inserted in to the trial crops in multiple different combinations.

The oil pressed form the seeds is intended as feed for farmed salmon.

Fish farming is big business, netting some £600 million a year in exports for Scotland’s fishing industry alone. But salmon are top predators and their natural diet is smaller fish which are rich in a particular type of omega-3 oil known as DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid. Fish farms consume roughly 80% of all fish oil harvested from the oceans as fish, well beyond sustainable limits.

The GM camelina is intended to replace dwindling marine stocks. Researchers at Rothamsted estimate one hectare of GM camelina containing 12% DHA can produce as much DHA as approximately 10,000 fish.

But this misses the point that fish farms are inherently unsustainable and that using valuable land to grow food for them is an obscene waste of calories that could be used to feed humans directly. As recipes for sustainability go, it’s neither wholesome nor nutritious.

Insect-resistant Broccoli

The John Innes Centre is growing a plot of long stemmed Chinese variety GM broccoli in Norwich. The researchers have used CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology to make insertions or deletions of the Myb28 gene, a key compound in regulating the plant’s sulphur metabolism. This, they say, will enhance or block the plant’s ability to resist insect pests.

The trial is taking place close to farms that grow non-GM broccoli. Brassicas cross pollinate fairly easily and there is concern that adequate safety measures have not been put in place to prevent contamination.

Super wheat?

A GM wheat (Triticum aestivum) is also underway the aim of which is to produce white flour with extra iron. Currently, white flour is fortified using iron powder or iron salts to regulation levels of 16.5 micrograms per gram.  But the researchers are looking for a way to alter the plants genome so that the majority of iron is transported form the bran (the outer shell) to the endosperm the central, starchy part of the wheat seed, which is processed for white flour.

Modern wheat varieties are actually bred for yield rather than nutrition and as a result iron levels have dropped over the decades. From that perspective high iron wheat may sound like a good thing but this can also be achieved through conventional breeding. Objections to the trial also pointed out that the researchers cannot guarantee that the iron from the GM wheat will bioavailable (that is well absorbed by the body) enough to make a difference to health.

What is more, as with the broccoli there is significant potential for the GM trial plants to cross pollinate with non GM crops.

One potato, two potato, GM potato….?

It’s worth remembering that it was a GM potato that started the media storm over the safety of genetic modification in 1998.  Dr Arpad Pusztai discovered intestine abnormalities, suppressed immune systems and other health defects in rats fed GM potatoes gene encoded with a snowdrop protein at the Rowett Institute, Aberdeen. In his control study, the non-GM potato spiked with snowdrop left rats unharmed, only the combination of the snowdrop and the GM potato caused disease.

Now Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich are trialling a new kind of GM potato in Suffolk and Cambridge. The Maris Piper plants have been gene edited to resist late blight, potato cyst nematodes and improve tuber quality. A separate study hopes to prevent blackening when the potatoes are cooked at high temperatures and made into crisps and chips, by reducing acrylamide. 

In his first speech to the nation, the UK’s new Prime Minister made no secret of his support for more GM crops. But his enthusiasm is completely out of step with what consumers want.

Give the people what they want!

UK opinion polls consistently show public opposition to GM food:

• BBC’s Countryfile asked viewers in 2012 if GM trials should be allowed to go ahead in the UK; 79% said no.

• A 2012 MSN poll recorded that 67% said they did not want GM crops grown in this country.

• A survey by food industry magazine Food Navigator in 2012 found that 73% said they favoured a ban on GM food in the UK.

• The Guardian newspaper reported in 2013 that 72% of readers said they do not believe GM food is either safe or beneficial. Six months later the Guardian ran another poll – should restrictions on GM crops be relaxed? – 71% said no.

• A 2014 YouGov poll found that 46% of adults had negative views about GM. In addition the number of adults who felt the UK government should not be promoting the adoption GMOs was 40% – nearly double the 22% in favour of such promotion.

• In 2015, the Food Standards Agency (FSA)’s Biannual Public Attitudes Tracker listed GM foods as one of the top three spontaneously mentioned food safety concerns.

• By 2016 the FSA Consumer Attitudes Tracker Survey revealed that public concern about GM food rose to 27%, up from 22%.

• In 2017, when asked about their environmental concerns post-Brexit’, 61% of Conservative voters polled said they wanted a ban on the production of GM crops.

The demand for transparency choice and simply better quality food is borne out by the booming organic food sector, trust in Organic Certification schemes, the popularity and traceability of farmers markets, farm shops/box deliveries and major supermarkets expanding their organic ranges.

A people’s food revolution is well and truly underway!

Edited by Patricia Thomas