Sub Groups

CONSUMER CHOICE AND COEXISTENCE GROUP

The members of the group are:

Helen Browning
David Carmichael
Rosie Hails (Convenor)
Julie Hill
Jeff Maxwell
Roger Turner

The sub-group is approaching issues around consumer choice and GM crops from two angles: what consumers want now and may want in the future; and how could this be delivered in practical terms by producers. It will analyse consumer decision-making and existing social research on consumer preferences. It will also look at the regulatory provisions that will impact on consumer choice. It will consider the significant practical and economic implications for the co-existence of different GM and non-GM crops on the farm and elsewhere in the supply chain, including scope - what materials are covered by the labelling regulations - and the thresholds set for adventitious presence (AP) of GM material in food, feed and seeds. The group will examine the practical and economic implications of different models of co-existence for producers (seed producers, the agricultural biotechnology industry, on the farm, elsewhere in the supply chain) and for consumers in a representative range of food and non-food crops: beet, oil seed rape, wheat and trees. The implications of gene transfer from GM crops to other crops or wild relatives will be considered as part of this.

The group's meetings are deliberative and are minuted but not held in public. Its first meeting was on 6 March 2002. For meeting details, please click here.

To contact us, the secretary to the developmental group is Richard Abel: richard.abel@dti.gsi.gov.uk