Should Scottish farming endorse GM technology?

NO FARMING issue has split opinion in the 21st century more than the GM one. There is little grey area in this debate - you are either for or against. Not unexpectedly, this has caused a bit of a logjam in the decision making process throughout the EU.
The European Commission’s move this week to allow member states to set their own levels for the approval processes of GM technology is a well intentioned attempt to break this particular impasse.
In the long term, it could indeed lead to the creation of a clearer policy. Unfortunately, it will lead to nothing short of chaos in the short term and poses many more questions than it answers.
Those in the supply trade, for example, must be tearing their hair out at the prospect of different labelling and tolerance levels being applied in all the disparate member states throughout the EU.
George Lyon, Lib Dem MEP, probably speaks for the majority of Scottish farmers when he says that GM technology has a role to play in making food production more economically and environmentally sustainable in the future. But even he is horrified at the prospect of a two-tier market developing amid the confusion that trading between countries with different rules would bring.
One certainty, however, is that this move will re-ignite the whole GM debate — and that alone might be no bad thing!