Alicia Hull questions how genetic modification could affect our natural world.
Author: Alicia Hull
Unlike previous bills, the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 in the UK will allow gene editing and gene drives across all species and in the wild; abandon regulations and deny the public information about Genetic Modification (GM) crops in their food. With similar, but less extreme, changes made in Europe. As a result countless applications have been made for GM ‘solutions’ to the many problems we face. The vast majority apply to medicine and food crops.
They derive from a very different view of nature. They see mankind as separate and more important than nature which is there to serve our convenience. Nature is flawed and can be controlled and improved by modern science. This directly opposes the traditional view that nature is highly valued for its own sake. Its bounty supplies all our needs, while we try to avoid its dangers. We are part of nature, but it is far too complex for our understanding, so we should always use the ‘precautionary principle’. Refined in the Gaia theory the world is understood to be a self-sustaining, self-correcting system where interactions between countless different species sustain life and a stable climate. Recent research supporting the Gaia theory has been ignored by those promoting genetic solutions. We now know that plants pump about 30% of their energy from photosynthesis to fungi and bacteria in the soil which in turn help them get nutrients out of the soil.
Gaia theory assumes that extremely disruptive activity can destroy this homeostatic balance. It blames intensive farming, invasive science, privatisation and capitalist growth as the causes of today’s widespread distress. It recognises how often scientific ‘progress’ has led to time bombs, such as plastic pollution and forever chemicals. It stresses the need for the ‘precautionary principle’. Yet, the new law proposes more of the same, extremely invasive science to privatise nature itself.
GM supporters also ignore their dismal history of harm and failure. For example, GM has not increased yields, a central claim in support. Instead contamination from GM soya put organic farmers out of business. The terminator seed programme in India drove thousands of farmers to suicide. ‘Golden rice’ did not solve the problem of vitamin deficiency. Many projects have been quietly abandoned.
GM is theft. It gives natural plants or genes available for anyone away to corporations to patent for their exclusive use. It is unnecessary because benign natural solutions exist. And it inevitably destroys them. For example, the traditional seed sharing system which produced countless varieties for different soils and weather conditions. Indeed GM companies used traditional knowledge to identify the best plants to patent. It directs funding and research away from existing natural solutions. For example, selective breeding is developing blight resistant chestnut trees in America, but now timber and paper companies drive funding for research into GM alternatives without knowing how these trees will interact with the existing population over the hundreds of years of their lives.
In general GM research ignores nature’s amazing ability to adapt and counter any changes imposed.
GM is all about quick profits. It is supported by corporations wanting the profits from exclusive control of food crops and medicines, and neoliberal governments seeking new growth industries. But GM can only be sold to the public by lies and false assumptions.
The constant lie is that GM is no different to natural breeding, just quicker. This was claimed even when gene parts of other organisms were added. Governments now boast that CRISPR technology enables very precise editing. But research shows that joins in genes are still far from exact, are unpredictable with unintended consequences. Also we now know that other parts of DNA are involved to control the development, growth, and shape of the organism, which is also affected by the environmental conditions. The ‘phenome’, the plant itself, is different from its ‘genome’ – the genes. This makes a nonsense of gene technology.
Gene drives are particularly dangerous. They override the natural process of Mendelian inheritance which brings slow changes to a species, to bring total change in two generations. It is used to completely change a characteristic or annihilate a species. But no thought is given as to what happens to the surrounding web of life when, for example, mosquitos are eliminated.
One trick to counter public hostility is to use another name;‘precision breeding’ or ‘synthetic biology’. More effective is excluding information so people are unaware of what they are eating. In the latest law, the lie that GM is the same as natural breeding is used to justify no labelling.
The contamination of other plants was always a known risk, so regulation and laboratory trials were promised to establish safety before anything was released into the wild. However, as with so many privatised industries, regulation is lax. At a local consultation in 2003 we learned that a GM corn for chicken feed was allowed when statistically it proved dangerous - the chickens died. Another plant was allowed when its composition had changed so dramatically it was like a different species. Complacency in government is now so great that regulations are abandoned. Minute, fast-mutating fungi and bacteria and all wildlife are seen as fit for GM when monitoring and containment are clearly impossible.
Thousands of citizens across Europe have been developing a transformational system to do just that for over a decade. Supporting their work, maybe even joining in is the best thing we can do. Across Europe Diem 25 (Democracy in Europe Movement) are building political parties in many countries to carry out their alternative policy. In the UK our corrupt voting system and tight top down control means that the movement has ro remain a grassroots one. It is coordinated by Citizen Network, so the best action is to join them and spread information about their ‘Grassroots Manifesto for Sustainability.' Membership and use of the Library is free.
The publisher is Citizen Network. XXX © Alicia Hull 2026.
Sustainability, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Article
