Abstract

FREE ENTRY

Is the jury still out on genetically-modified (GM) crops, even after all these years of scientific advancement and ethical debate? Does the recent economic crisis and increasing environmental damage justify a worldwide uptake of GM crops?

Some claim that corporate GM agriculture is ‘more spin than substance’, while others claim that even humanitarian GM projects are ultimately an attempt to generate profit from the global poor. But with scientific agreement on the fact that we face imminent worldwide food and water shortages, something must be done if we are to avert rising food prices, environmental degradation and social instability.

Why should the public support GM crops? Under what circumstances might they be acceptable? Does the public have another option? Find out more at this event.

Refreshments will be available after the talk and Q&A session.

Panel: Professor Sir David Baulcombe, FRS - Professor of Botany, University of Cambridge and chair of the Royal Society’s report on biological science and food crop production (Oct 2009)

Dr Adrian Dubock – Golden Rice Humanitarian Project & Agricultural Consultancy for Development GmbH, Switzerland

Mr. Tony Juniper – environmental campaigner, author and sustainability advisor, Green Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Cambridge and former Executive Director of Friends of the Earth (2003-8)

Lord Dick Taverne – Liberal Democrat Peer & author of “The March of Unreason – Science, Democracy and the New Fundamentalism”

This session will be chaired by Professor Gerard Evan (Head of Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge).