Genetic Technology Bill: enabling innovation to boost food security

Legislation to cut red tape and support the development of innovative tech to grow more resistant, more nutritious, and more productive crops will be introduced in Parliament today (Wednesday 25 May). 

The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill will remove unnecessary barriers to research into new gene editing technology, which for too long has been held back by the EU’s rules around gene editing, which focus on legal interpretation rather than science – hindering the UK’s world leading agricultural research institutions. Outside of the EU and free to set rules that work in the best interest of the UK, this Bill will enable the development and marketing of precision bred plants and animals which will drive economic growth and attract investment into agri-food research and innovation in the UK. 

Precision breeding technologies, like gene editing, have a range of benefits. They will give UK scientists the power to help farmers and producers develop plant varieties and animals with beneficial traits that could also occur through traditional breeding and natural processes, but in a more efficient and precise way. For example, precision breeding techniques can produce crops with fewer inputs, including pesticides and fertilisers, improving the sustainability, resilience and productivity of the UK’s food system. This will reduce costs to farmers and reduce impacts on the environment, as well as potentially increasing disease resistance in plants and animals, and boosting climate change resilience; with water scarcity likely to become a major impact of climate change, it is essential that plant breeding technology is able to keep pace with the challenge. 

Precision breeding can also create safer food by removing allergens and preventing the formation of harmful compounds in food. Globally, between 20 per cent and 40 per cent of all crops grown are lost to pests and diseases. Precision breeding has the potential to create plant varieties and animals that have improved resistance to diseases; helping to reduce our reliance on pesticides and antibiotics, reduce impacts on the environment and improve the welfare of animals.  

Environment Secretary, George Eustice, said: 

"Outside the EU we are free to follow the science.  These precision technologies allow us to speed up the breeding of plants that have natural resistance to diseases and better use of soil nutrients so we can have higher yields with fewer pesticides and fertilisers. The UK has some incredible academic centres of excellence and they are poised to lead the way."

Defra’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Gideon Henderson, said: 

“Substantial environmental, health and food security benefits can come from use of genetic technologies to precisely mimic breeding and improve our crops. The UK is home to some of the world’s leading research institutions in this area and these reforms will enable their scientists to use their expertise to make farming more resilient and our food healthier and more sustainable.”

This is different to genetic modification (GM) techniques, where genes from one species are introduced to another.

The Government is taking a step-by-step approach by creating legislation for plants first. No changes will be made to the regulation of animals under the GMO regime until a regulatory system is developed to safeguard animal welfare.   

Professor Susan Jebb, Chair of the FSA, said:

“This legislation recognises the need to update our regulatory frameworks to keep pace with new scientific technologies. Our regulatory system needs to be fit for purpose to unlock the benefits of new genetic technologies for consumers whilst providing confidence that our food standards will be maintained. This includes animal feed as well as the foods we eat directly.

“As the independent government department responsible for food standards, the FSA is here to make sure people can trust the food they buy and eat is safe, is what it says it is,  and that new technologies do not undermine progress towards a healthier and more sustainable food system. We will continue to gather evidence and represent the interests of consumers in relation to precision breeding techniques as the Bill progresses.

“Through our work with stakeholders and Government we will strive for a transparent, proportionate, and science-based process for the regulation and authorisation of foods and animal feed in this fast-moving area.”

NFU Vice President David Exwood said:

“This science-based legislative change has the potential to offer a number of benefits to UK food production and to the environment and will provide farmers and growers with another tool in the toolbox as we look to overcome the challenges of feeding an ever-growing population while tackling the climate crisis.”

Director of Science at the James Hutton Institute in Dundee, Lesley Torrance, said:

“These crops are urgently needed to address future food security which is threatened by climate change and pests, and to help reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases from agriculture whilst maintaining crop yields.

“The James Hutton Institute uses innovative precision breeding technologies which have the potential to speed the development of new crop varieties in a more reliable way.

“We welcome both the focus of the Bill which is on the assessment of the properties of the new crop and not the process used to develop it; and the transparency of this information which will be held on a public register.”

Notes to editors

Opportunities brought about by precision breeding include: 

• Water scarcity will be a major impact of climate change. Precision breeding has the ability to develop crops that are more resilient to the impacts of climate change and that can perform better with fewer inputs. This will help farmers to adapt to adverse weather, reduce costs and increase food production.  
• Precision breeding can also help to create more nutritious and safer food by increasing nutrient content, removing allergens and preventing the formation of harmful compounds in food. 
• The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill will create a simpler regulatory regime for the development and marketing of precision-bred plants and animals. This will include introducing new notification systems for research and marketing, and ensuring information collected on precision-bred organisms is published on a public register. 
• Precision breeding techniques such as gene editing gives us the power to develop plant varieties and animals with beneficial traits that can also occur through traditional breeding and natural processes, but in a far more efficient and precise way than was ever possible with conventional methods.

On the role of the FSA:

• The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has a statutory responsibility to protect consumers and to regulate the entry food and feed that is genetically modified (GM) and Precision Bred (PB) using new genetic technologies.
• As the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) change the definition of a genetically modified organism, this has implications for FSA and its regulatory framework. Hence, FSA has been working in tandem with Defra to develop this legislation.

Further stakeholder quotes:

Crop scientist at Rothamsted Research, Professor Nigel Halford, said:

“I am really excited to see this bill being introduced, and optimistic that this is another step on the way to science-based decision making on crop biotechnology.”

Leader of Development at Rothamsted Research, Professor Jonathan Napier, said:

“In plant biotechnology, regulatory burden has been an impediment to converting basic discoveries into useful products, so it is very welcome that this Bill will streamline the process and help further establish the UK as a world-leader in the development of GE and GM crops.”

Director of the John Innes Centre, Professor Dale Sanders FRS said: 

“I’m pleased that the Government is introducing new routes to bring gene edited crops to market. This is a genuine opportunity to accelerate access to some innovations that are essential for both human health and for the environment. 

Gene editing potentially offers solutions to many of the current issues facing agriculture. At the John Innes Centre we use the technology to understand and develop crops which are more nutritious and resilient to climate change and diseases, while at the same time ensuring biodiversity.  A growing world population requires an ever-increasing volume of food to sustain it and we need a solution to the food crisis that will come from having 2.1 billion more mouths to feed by 2050.  Developing disease-resistant crops, with high-quality nutritional profile will be a key part of sustainably feeding the growing population and technologies such as gene editing can help us achieve this more quickly. 

The full benefits of genetic technologies can only be realised when crops developed are able to reach customers on supermarket shelves. This Bill brings the opportunity to see our scientific breakthroughs lead to genuine improvements to the foods that we eat.”

Case studies: 

Disease resistance and reduced chemical use  

Powdery mildew resistance:   

• Powdery mildew disease is one of the main reasons why UK tomato growers spray fungicides on their crops.    
• Researchers at The Sainsburys Laboratory have created a new tomato using gene editing, named Tomelo, that is resistant to powdery mildew infection. This will help reduce the need to use fungicides and improve food production of UK tomatoes.  
• It took less than 10 months to generate this resistant line, demonstrating the ability of precision breeding to make the breeding process more efficient and precise.    

Climate resilience and food security   

Climate resilient wheat:  

• Developing wheat that is resilient to climate change will help to increase food production from a crop that 2.5 billion people are dependent on globally.   
• Researchers at the John Innes Centre in Norwich have used gene editing techniques to identify a key gene in wheat that can be used to introduce traits such as heat resilience whilst maintaining high yield.  
• This discovery presents an exciting opportunity to identify variations of the gene that can give wheat varieties resilience to climate change.  

Public health  

Tomatoes biofortified with vitamin D:  (embargoed until 23 May)

• Fifty percent of Europeans and one billion people world-wide have vitamin D insufficiency.    
• Researchers at the John Innes Centre are testing a bio-fortified tomato that has been gene edited to have a high accumulation of vitamin D in the fruit and leaves.   
• Using gene-editing to produce vitamin D in tomatoes could help millions of people globally who are deficient and can help reduce waste as the leaves could also be used to produce supplements.  

Animal Health and Welfare   

Disease resistant chickens:  

• Bird flu is a major threat to farmed chickens worldwide, with some strains killing up to 100 per cent of birds in a flock. In some cases, variants of the virus can infect people and cause serious illness.   
• In a collaboration between Imperial College London, the Pirbright Institute and the Roslin Institute, a research study has shown potential in using gene-editing to produce chickens that are resistant to the disease. The virus was no longer able to grow inside cells with the genetic change.   
• The use of gene editing could help to control the spread of the disease which is urgently needed to protect chickens and to reduce the risk to human health.