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Society, Religion and Technology Project Church of Scotland Looking at the ethics of technology for a New Millennium

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"Far greater public accountability is needed if the genetic engineered food is to have any future in the UK." says a Church of Scotland report on Genetically Modified Food to be debated at the General Assembly on Tuesday morning 11 May 1999, but it considers that calls for a moratorium are exaggerated.

A new motion will also call on the HM Government to ensure that national ethical or safety objections to sensitive goods like GM food are made exempt from WTO trade rules.

Kirk's Award-winning Project : The Kirk's SRT Project will tomorrow be Awarded the UK 1999 Templeton Prize for its pioneering work over 30 years on ethics and technology. Award ceremony 13:45 May 11, Assembly Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh

Motions put to the Assembly on GM Food

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The General Assembly report finds a serious failure in democracy in the way decisions are made about both importing genetically modified food and their use in the UK.

Unless major changes are made over labelling and public consultation, potential benefits of modified foods could be lost to everyone in a consumer backlash - a modern Boston Tea Party or a "Rotterdam Soya Bean Fest"- if the public of Europe metaphorically throw genetically modified soya and maize into the North Sea.

Recent WTO trade rulings over bananas and hormones in beef cattle reveal deeply serious concerns about whether a nation is allowed to have its own ethical values over a controversial produce like GM food, in the face of international trade rules. We cannot let the values of the Scottish people be at the mercy of trade lawyers in Geneva. (Deliverance 44a)

SRT Project's 5 Year Study

The report arises out of a 5 year expert study on genetically modified crops, food and animals by the Kirk's Society, Religion & Technology Project with top Scottish geneticists, ethicists and sociologists, recently published in the acclaimed new book "Engineering Genesis".

The report concludes "there need be no moral objection to Christians eating a foodstuff containing one or two genes of another species, or even of human origin." (5.2.3) It recognises, however, that for some people "foreign" genes in food or mixing genes across widely divergent species could present serious ethical or religious problems (6.1 and 5.2.1), and others may object for ecological or safety reasons.

"Given the fundamental place which food plays, there is an overwhelming case of simple justice for the mandatory labelling and segregation of all genetically modified foodstuffs." (6.1.2) The report criticises the current EU regulations which only require labelling where foreign DNA can actually be detected. "The EU has reduced an ethical issue to one of scientific technicalities and so missed the spirit of the law." Out of respect for people who object to eating modified foods, it calls on the Government and the EU "to require mandatory labelling of all food with either identifiable traces of DNA or proteins or whose production has involved genetic modification" (Deliverance 43).

Power of Multinationals and EC has ignored the people

The introduction into the EU of Monsanto's genetically modified soya and Novartis' maize "reveals disturbing trends about the power structures which enforce these products over the head of any proper sense of public involvement." The companies' failure to segregate modified and unmodified products is "an unacceptably aggressive attitude towards the public of another nation" all the more disturbing in that it came about with express approval of the EC - more anxious to avoid a trade war than take account of European public values. (6.1.1)

"Private commercial concerns and international trade pressure seem to have a disproportionate influence on a public moral issue. There is an urgent need to bring the driving forces behind the research and marketing of transgenic food back into public involvement and proper democratic accountability." (Deliverance 44)

Risks - Beware Exaggeration

The report recognises the "uncertain and unforeseen aspects of genetic modification" but says "it is easy to exaggerate the risks". (5.3.3) "Christians of all people should beware encouraging an aversion to risk that demands minimising every conceivable hazard. We cannot demand absolute safety for God did not create our world with any such guarantee." (5.3.4)

While it recognises the potential of GM crops "for human, environmental and medical good" (Deliverance 42) the report urges the Government to continue a cautious approach in view of potential environmental and safety impacts. Despite the regulatory system, it would be complacent to imagine there could not be 'the one that got away'. It does not call for a complete moratorium but suggests concentrating on applications restricted in scale and conferring "strong human or ecological benefits." (5.3.5)

Feeding the Rich

The claim that genetically modified food would "feed the world" is not so far borne out by the evidence. At present, the vast majority of products and research and development are aimed at "profitable western supermarket shelves," not the hungry of the world who cannot afford to pay. "Moreover," the report continues, "the benefits seem primarily to be convenience for multi-national companies rather than meeting widespread human need." (6.2.1) The study found "disturbingly little evidence" of research which would benefit the really hungry.

It also asks how far the solution is in "sophisticated, high-tech approaches developed thousands of miles away" compared with down to earth solutions in keeping with indigenous cultures and their own understanding of the local ecology. "If genetically modified organisms were going to make the difference between people going hungry or having enough to eat, then there would be a clear ethical case for the risks to ecological balance or human health to be worth taking. This case is a very long way from being proven." (Deliverance 45)

Motions to be put to the General Assembly

45. Urge Government, EU and private sector funding bodies to redress the bias towards western consumer foods in research and development of genetic engineering, and put a much greater priority and resources into applications targeted at food needs in marginal lands and poorest peoples of developing countries.

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Dr Donald Bruce is Director of the award-winning Society Religion and Technology Project of the Church of Scotland, responsible for assessing ethical issues in technology for Scotland's national church. He and his wife Ann are co-editors of a new book "Engineering Genesis"; on the ethics of genetic engineering in non-human species, based on a 5 year expert working group study, published by Earthscan, 0171-278 0433, ISBN 1 85383 570 6.

Full text of the SRT Project's Genetically Modified Food Report
See also SRT's Press Release on Labelling Genetically Modified Food (March 19)

Text of the SRT Project's Report to the Assembly on Cloning and other issues

General information about the General Assembly from the Church of Scotland's main website.

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