Key points from article :
Two kinds of question that people ask about developments in life sciences and biotechnology:
1. what controls or limits should we place on technological innovation?
2. what kind of technologies do we want?
Last month, the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) launched a consultation on the regulation of genetic technologies in agriculture and aquaculture.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics' 2016 report identified the use of genome editing in farmed animals as a priority area for further consideration.
Consultation asks whether organisms that could have come about without genetic technologies should be subject to less stringent regulation.
European Court of Justice from 2018 that says that they shouldn’t.
There are a myriad of other interdependent dimensions including animal health, nutrition, zoonotic disease, ecosystems, biodiversity, climate, rural livelihoods, supply chains, industry structure and food security.
The internal and external challenges facing the food and farming system do not only affect us as food producers and consumers but as citizens and societies.
This could be the defining moment for this generation of biotechnologies and for the direction of our future food and farming system.
