Imagine that an extraordinary scientific discovery promised the ability to eradicate hunger, transform agricultural productivity and significantly enhance animal welfare. Imagine that the techniques first used on crops and domesticated animals could cleverly be deployed to eliminate some inherited diseases in humans…. Then imagine that your government refused to allow any of this to happen in your country.
Alas, there is no need to imagine any of this because these discoveries are already here and the Edinburgh government is not having any of it. Changing the world may be fine for other nations but in Scotland we hide from the future.
[Recently, the Scottish National Party] made it clear that while England is set to press ahead with field trials of gene-edited crops and farm animals, the Scottish government will not allow anything of the sort.
Since the party believes Scotland will one day join the EU in its own right, there is no advantage in diverging from EU regulations.
Given the EU’s less than enthusiastic approach to agricultural advances this leaves us in a dismal position: we must side with the EU even when it is wrong rather than with England if it is right.
