Genetically modified foods

Analysing the ethical implications of 'novel foods'.

Novel foods include 'functional foods', marketed with health claims, and genetically modified (GM) foods. Published in 1999, our first thorough review of the ethical issues concludes 'no thanks, unless...', in contrast to a major report by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

In 2003, we published a second report focusing on nutritionally 'enhanced' GM foods such as 'Golden Rice'. That report argued whether European concerns about GM crops were making poor people go hungry, as proponents of GM foods were claiming. We examined the regulation, research and ownership of GM crops, concluding that public money should go to projects where poor communities, not firms and scientists, take the lead.

This work on GM and other novel foods has stimulated two subsequent programmes on:

• Research and innovation, focusing on how rural communities and consumers can have a greater say in shaping public and private sector research.
• Nutrition and public health, examining how the development of novel foods and public policy reforms are combining to shift responsibilities for public health off the state and onto individuals.