My Lords, I rise to move Amendment 2 and speak to Amendment 31 in my name. At the outset, I declare an interest through my involvement in Rothamsted agricultural institute, as in the register.
This group follows on quite neatly from our earlier debate, and I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Winston and others for setting out some of the risks inherent in this technology. It is the balance of those risks that we are struggling with as we go through the Bill, because, as I think the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, said, nothing is risk free. We can all see the potential advantages of this technology, but we have to get the balance right.
Amendment 2 is a probing amendment which tests out whether the Government intend gene-editing techniques in plants to be used more widely than simply for agricultural purposes. For example, is it also envisaged that this could be used for ornamental horticulture—to speed up the shapes or the colours of flowers? Is this desirable? Is it really what we want the technology to be available for? Would that wider use of the technology make more work for the regulators? I am sure that it would. As the demand for authorisation soared, would we have the capacity to manage it properly? Do we really want the regulators to be bogged down in authorising the new shade of a rose? This is simply one example. Noble Lords could think of many others which would go beyond the very specific application of the technology to agricultural purposes.
5 pm
This amendment challenges how far we want this technology to be applied. Of course we understand the pressure to deliver for improved food and farming. Do we really want to go beyond the sectors which are absolutely necessary? In earlier debates, the Minister talked about taking progress step by step. Is this an area in which we want to proceed? How far beyond agriculture are the Government envisaging that this technology will be applied?
Amendment 31 addresses the potential of the wider environmental impact of individual precision-based interventions. Our amendment would require the advisory committee to report and to make a particular assessment of the organisms’ wider impact on agriculture. This is because of the potential disruption to the ecosystems which we now know underpin good farming practice. I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Winston. In his last contribution, he gave some examples of where this technology could go wrong and have an adverse impact on agriculture not envisaged at the time the organisms were released. For example, a crop variant could be created which would be resistant to certain pests. That would be an advantage, but it could have an adverse impact on other insect life which had previously been contributing to the biodiversity of the soil life. Pests which had previously been attracted to certain species of plants might no longer be attracted to them. They could be deflected on to other plants which had not previously been damaged by these pests. This could cause an adverse chain reaction within agriculture.
The amendment also raises the potential for a crossover between plants and animals, so that the technology affecting plants could also have an effect
on animal life. New variations in animal feed may strengthen an animal’s resistance to infection, but its altered manure could also alter the balance of insect and microorganisms in the soil. All these technologies are interrelated. Each cannot be taken as a precise, individual intervention. It matters, because we know that the restoration of our biodiversity is so important. It also matters, particularly in farming, because of the scale to which the technology could be quickly applied and where the danger of unforeseen consequences could cause widespread detriment.
This once again highlights the failings in the regulatory system set out in the Bill. There does not seem to be a mechanism for the advisory committee and the welfare advisory committee to collaborate in looking at the wider impacts of these changes. This is why I have argued from the start that we need a more robust regulator—such as that proposed by the genetic technology committee—who could take a holistic view of the wider impact of these changes. We will come to this later.
I agree with the points made earlier by my noble friend Lord Winston when he said that, regrettably, the Bill is about releasing genes but not about studying them first. I challenge where this studying would take place. In the meantime, we know that regenerative farming practices will lie at the heart of a successful food and farming policy for the future. These amendments would ensure that precision-bred organisms were placed firmly in this wider context if the advisory committee were given this wider role. I hope that noble Lords and the Minister will see the sense in these proposals. I beg to move.