Members of the public will get the chance to have their say on genetically modified food in a nationwide debate during May, June and July. The government has agreed to provide £500,000 to fund the debate - twice the original budget.
The debate is being organised by theindependent GM debate steering board.
The programme will include:
- six national and regional conferences - three in England and one each in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - venues to be announced
- smaller county-level meetings
- a ‘toolkit’ to encourage discussion right down to village and local group level
-
a film - to be made widely available - by the filmmaker Roger Graef
The events are designed to reach a wide cross-section of society, said Professor Malcolm Grant who is chairing the debate steering board.
"This is the first ever national attempt to explore the issues around the introduction of a major new technology through widespread public discussion," he said. "Our aim is to provide several different avenues for public discussion and deliberation, giving people access to the information our initial research has shown they want in an impartial and innovative way.
"We will report to government what people are saying in the debate. We have a commitment from government that it will respond publicly to our report and show what it has learned from the debate."
The Board is due to report its findings to the government and the devolved administrations by the end of September.
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