UK: Strategies for Precautionary Commercialization of GM crops

As genetically modified (GM) products approach the market stage, the UK gov ernment and agro-food industry have faced a suspicious or hostile public. S ince 1998 many retail chains have undertaken to exclude any GM-derived ingr edients from their own-brand lines. This commercial blockage has intensifie d pressures for greater precaution, even for a moratorium on cultivating CM crops. Political protest has led to strategies for precautionary commercia lization. Government and industry have cooperated to plan a managed develop ment" of CM crops. Across the agricultural supply chain, industry has devis ed voluntary guidelines to ensure segregation of CM crops and to limit the spread of GM herbicide-tolerance, In particular UK regulators seek to test the risk that broad-spectrum herbicide sprays could damage wildlife habitat s; they have broadened the advisory expertise accordingly These measurer open up the precautionary content to further debate, at both national and EU levels. Market-stage precautions establish a means to test claims that GM crops are environmentally-friendly products. By translating public concerns into broader risk-assessment criteria, the UK procedure in volves critics in potentially influencing standards of scientific evidence and environmental harm. This social process has become a prerequisite for l egitimizing commercial use.