How to design trustworthy governance!?
I was sitting in a government synthetic biology meeting when someone read out that Boris in his PM acceptance speech had announced on the steps of Downing Street that now post-Brexit we are free of restrictive EU GM regulations 'the UK is going to feed the world with GMO's.' Every one of us was totally gobsmacked.
There are so many reasons why this was an utterly fatuous thing to say, not least the history of distrust of GMO's in the UK. So I proposed at the meeting that if this is going to be government policy you have GOT to learn from your past mistakes and take a new approach. There were nods all round, and interest in the idea from Patrick Vallance and Alex Chisholm who were chairing the meeting.
So I proposed this scoping study - Proposed exploration of institutions and processes for the design of trustworthy governance of emerging biotechnologies - and bounced it around a few interested stakeholders, to explore how this may be done, using our trust thinking at the heart of the approach. (I was half-way through the project, so not quite the same as now, tho wondering if I should have kept it that way!).
This post is in response to various discussions here and on twitter about the neanderthal approach that DEFRA subsequently decided to take and whether this was worth another look.
For reference. Here is a ranty post outlining thoughts about Gene editing governance in response to the findings of a Food Standards Agency public dialogue on GMOS which is not respectful enough for my liking of citizens within this process.
It also includes a link to the public dialogue findings
FSA Public Dialogue including views on gene editing and GMOs
Here is the DEFRA consultation (closed March 17)