FOCUS ON FRUIT SARAH CALCUTT
GENE EDITING: HOW DO WE GET
THE PUBLIC ON OUR SIDE?
Ok, so as someone who has spent too many of plant protection chemistry by growing more here SARAH CALCUTT hours wielding a pair of Felcos and a small and being more food secure? Executive Chair, pruning saw trying to control canker in a Who do you think should be responsible for National Fruit Show Gala orchard, and has the resulting repetitive creating trust in the application of gene editing to strain injury to prove it, the gene editing news plant breeding in the UK? Is it the firms involved, has been nothing short of amazing, frankly. the propagators who sell to growers? The research As farmers, we know that there are certain bodies funded by government (because this one diseases for which we never quite get control, some things that, once hasn’t got a Monsanto label…)? Is it the Government that should spread the they get a grip, signal the end of financial viability for a crop and for word (and will that help)? which the required chemistry is becoming all too scarce. Should we be transparent to create trust, or should this be down to labelling? But how do we tell the public? How do we support those who need to manage Do we create a Gala+, new and improved, still nutritious, still hydrating, still this story and educational work without feeding the fervent anti-chemistry, good for lowering your cholesterol levels but now without a dreadful disease anti-science and anti-establishment lobby that thinks producing food should that ruins orchards and stops growers delivering what the consumer says they be a charitable act and not a business? How do we prevent this turning into the want – fresh, nutritious food, grown to a high standard in environmentally monumental nightmare that the anti-GMO campaign has delivered, halting a friendly and sustainable ways? lot of progress in a scientific breakthrough that reduces the use of the chemistry So I’m throwing the questions out there. There is a consultation happening they distrust so much? on this right now. If you have a view, I would be pleased to connect you with Should we be looking to treat this like a brand development project? If you the research team. For what it is worth, we need this science yesterday, but want to bring a product to market, you consult with experts in branding, you our greatest challenge is those that believe we are going to damage the conduct market research into people’s perceptions, gauge the mood of the environment and the human population irretrievably by its implementation. consumer, test messages and imagery and refine your product launch. Should we be using the medium of popular media? Should we be telling the story of how this editing (not modification, nothing fishy about these genes) is going to remove chemistry from the environment? Should we be open about the costs of medicating our crops, about the realities of how we bring them their fantastic fresh product and the pressures of producing it so close to home? Perhaps we should focus on the quality story; the reduction of waste by the removal of the gene that delivers vulnerability to scab? A greater proportion of the crop, every year, (not sprayed every time the mills period alarm goes off ) would make it into someone’s diet and it will not have shipped from thousands of miles away. Isn’t this, perhaps, one of our greatest arguments – not importing environmental damage, water, dubious employment practices and regulation
Better people Best placed
SEASONAL LABOUR PLACEMENT
0 6 78 9 1227 8 |0
ag re cr
tm ui
u t.e en
TO ADVERTISE CALL 01303 233883
W W W. S O U T H E A S T FA R M E R . N E T | J U LY 2 0 2 2
37
