UK Plant Breeders Express Support for Precision Breeding Techniques

The British Society of Plant Breeders (BSPB) has expressed its full support for the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill and its objective to provide greater access to more precise new breeding methods with the potential to accelerate progress in crop-related innovation at a time when it is increasingly and urgently needed.

The organization and its members, representing virtually 100% of UK plant breeders, also support the openness of information where precision breeding techniques such as gene editing have been used to develop new plant varieties. BSPB will maintain a public register of precision-bred crop varieties to support transparency and openness of information within the supply chain and this has been communicated to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The BSPB proposes to do this in its commitment to enable choice and openness of information within the supply chain despite the fact that Defra and the Food Standards Agency have made it clear that there is no scientific basis in terms of food or environmental safety for the Government to require statutory labeling of precision-bred products.

For more details, read the press release from BSPB.