Our Matt joined folk from around the country on the 22nd of January at the excellent 'GM - Gathering Momentum' event in London, a great combination of key note presentations by experts in the field and practical and involving action-based workshops.
The gathering, organised by Stop GM, took place to pre-empt the renewed focus on Genetic Modification, that is likely to stem from the Government's 'Global Food and Farming Futures' Foresight report that was published on the 24th of January. While the report makes some interesting recommendations - in terms of encouraging consumption of local and seasonal produce and the promotion of sustainable mixed and agro-ecological farming - there is widespread concern over the Government's Chief Scientist Sir John Beddington's promotion of Genetic Modification as the solution to increasing food demand and the impact of climate change on agriculture.
While there have been a variety of alarmist headlines in the media (and statements by Beddington himself which have focused on GM as the only solution to this dual crisis), the report itself is more conservative - inline with the failure of GM to so far deliver and it's increased reliance on petro-chemical inputs and pesticides - all the report actually concludes is that: "New technologies (such as the genetic modification of living organisms and the use of cloned livestock and nanotechnology) should not be excluded a priori on ethical or moral grounds.”
Genetic Modification is likely to become a key battle in what the future of global food production looks like. With the majority of the world's farmers planting seeds saved from the previous harvest Via Campesina (that represents around 400,000,000 small-scale farmers and farm workers globally), has been critical of patented GM seeds (that rely on pesticides sold by the same company) as an attempt by Governments in the global north to promote there domestic industries in the global south, under the pretext of solving world hunger.
We encourage everyone to acquaint themselves with the arguments and check out the extensive information available on the Stop GM website.