Webinar: Sense, Science and Sustainability
As part of the Bigger Conversation initiative, which we run at Beyond GM, I was pleased to chair a meeting of minds for this webinar which asked a huge and challenging question: Can genome editing and agroecology co-exist in the sustainable food and farming mix?
The panel was a “Who’s Who” of farming, animal welfare, biotechnology, academia and media. It included Philip Lymbery, global CEO of Compassion in World Farming; Wendy Harwood, senior scientist at the John Innes Centre; Guy Singh-Watson, farmer and founder of Riverford; Jack Heinemann, professor of genetics and molecular biology at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; and Lawrence Woodward director of Beyond GM.
Some of the views expressed were surprising including that Philip Lymbery, who said that gene editing may actually have some potential for improving animal welfare.
This was not your usual public discussion around genetic engineering in agriculture and it is well worth a listen. I was grateful to all concerned for their frankness and courage to bring some of these issues out in the open where more people can examine and debate them. The wisdom doing so that was evident in the torrent of audience questions (and challenges) which the session provoked!
The video is below and you can read a review of the session here, which also includes links to the transcript and audience questions.
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