Defra has granted Rothamsted Research permission to conduct another open-air trial of genetically modified (GM) wheat.

The Institute in Hertfordshire will carry out field trials of a high yielding GM crop over the next two years, after an application submitted in November was granted by Defra this week, and a risk assessment was reviewed by the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE).

The GM plants to be trialled have been developed by researchers from Rothamsted, the University of Essex and Lancaster University. They have been engineered to carry out photosynthesis more efficiently, which the researchers believe will make them higher yielding than conventional varieties. Researchers believe this will enable growers to push up wheat yields, which have plateaued in most of the world’s breadbasket regions in recent years.

Professor Christine Raines, Head of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex and principal investigator for the research, commented, “The efficiency of the process of photosynthesis integrated over the season is the major determinant of crop yield. However, to date photosynthesis has not been used to select for high yielding crops in conventional breeding programmes and represents an unexploited opportunity. But there is now evidence that improving the efficiency of photosynthesis by genetic modification is one of the promising approaches to achieve higher wheat yield potential.”

The researchers have already trialled the plants in glasshouse studies, which showed they photosynthesise more efficiently than conventional wheat plants.

Dr Malcolm Hawkesford, Head of the Plant Biology and Crop Science Department at Rothamsted and another lead scientist on the trial, added, “We will perform the proposed controlled experiment in our already established facilities here at Rothamsted Research. This trial will be a significant step forward as we will be able to assess in ‘real environmental conditions’ the potential of these plants to produce more using the same resources and land area as their non-GM counterparts. These field trials are the only way to assess the viability of a solution that can bring economic benefits to farmers, returns to the UK tax payer from the long-term investment in this research, benefits to the UK economy as a whole and the environment in general. Here at Rothamsted we are very happy to provide any further information and explanation on this area of research”.

However, campaigners remain unconvinced. On Wednesday, Liz O’Neill, Director of umbrella campaign group GM Freeze said, “GM Freeze and thirty other organisations submitted a detailed objection to this trial so we are disappointed but not surprised to hear that it is going ahead.

“We raised a number of technical concerns about the application itself and highlighted the potential for GM wheat to escape into the wild, as has happened repeatedly with GM wheat trials in the USA. But beyond all the technical detail, we believe that Rothamsted’s researchers have totally missed the point – what is the purpose of growing more wheat in the first place?

“World food production already far exceeds the needs of generations to come but people still go hungry. Nobody is starving because of some fundamental flaw with photosynthesis; they are starving because they are poor. Techno-fixes like GM wheat suck up public funding that could make a real difference if it was spent on systemic solutions like waste reduction and poverty eradication. Then we could all enjoy food that is produced responsibly, fairly and sustainably.”