n his speech on the future of Conservative environmental policy today, Boris Johnson will highlight why it is only by leaving the EU that we can fully realise the potential of the UK as an environmental leader by harnessing “the power of science, innovation and technology.” He is right. Brexit undoubtedly represents an enormous opportunity for UK environmentalism, precisely because the EU has stood squarely against “science, innovation and technology” for decades.
Agriculture and management of the countryside ought to be at the forefront of our environmental efforts yet, consumed by its desire for bureaucratic uniformity, the Common Agricultural Policy is consigning the EU to become the Museum of World Farming. Its hostility to new technology is to the detriment of both productivity and, crucially, the environment. France, for example, is missing out on over 4.5 tonnes per hectare in its maize yield compared to the US. By matching American yields, France could free up half a million hectares for wildlife or forestry, and do enormous environmental good.
Nowhere is this EU hostility more obvious than in the field of genetic technology. In July last year – despite the objections from scientists at over 70 European research centres – the ECJ ruled that organisms created using the precise gene-editing technique CRISPR-Cas9 should be subject to the same almost prohibitive regulatory hurdles as those created by genetic modification.
This ban will have, as Professor Stefan Jansson from Umeå University puts it, “a chilling effect on research”. All manner of innovative projects – from sustainable crops and fish oils to reduce our reliance on the sea, to mildew-resistant wheat and pigs immune to Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome – will now likely be impossible to commercialise inside the EU under the enormous regulatory burden.
The EU will also miss out on the huge environmental benefits of this technology. A 2014 survey found that genetic technologies had reduced pesticide use by 36.9 per cent on average around the world, while increasing yields by 21.6 per cent. Its authors found “robust evidence” for the benefits of these crops and hoped to “increase public trust in this technology.”
Global News 
Leave a comment