SAYING ‘NO’ TO GM RISKS LEAVING SCOTLAND BEHIND

Vice President to address GM debate in Edinburgh
Scottish Government’s approach to GM risks consigning the nation’s farmers and scientific community to a technological backwater.
Ahead of addressing the British Ecological Society GM Debate at the Royal Society of Edinburgh this evening (16 December), NFU Scotland’s Vice President Rob Livesey said he was neither for nor against the use of GM technology but was scathing of the Scottish Government’s decision-making process which stifled any rational debate on the subject.
In August, Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead announced that the growing of GM crops in Scotland was to be banned – a unilateral decision taken without consulting Scotland’s food, farming and scientific sectors.
Speaking ahead of the debate, Mr Livesey said:
“The current stance of Scottish Government is disappointing as saying no to real research will inevitably lead to Scotland being left behind. Farmers have mixed views on the potential offered by GMs but Scottish Government’s flawed approach to decision-making has stifled proper debate and left farmers feeling ill-informed.
“We are being asked to produce clean, safe and healthy food but red tape and regulation, much of it emanating from Scottish Government, already means we are operating with one arm and one leg tied behind our backs. We are also being challenged to keep our crops healthy when the number of plant protection products available to us is diminishing.
“Could GM and Scotland’s world-leading scientific community have helped us in our dilemma? We needed to have that discussion before – not after – Richard Lochhead took his decision.
“I fully accept the fundamental principle that we must supply what our customers and consumers want and that it would be pointless produce a product which had no market or, at best, sold at a discounted price.
“However, the Scottish Government’s assumption that keeping Scotland free from GM means that the value of our products will be greater in monetary terms is dangerous.
“Today, Scotland’s farmers are more environmentally aware than ever but credit for this is rarely recognised by wider society and, even more rarely, do we gain a price premium because if it.
“For Scottish Government to suggest there is a ‘green’ premium in the marketplace for the bulk of the food that Scotland produces suggest it is living in dreamland.”