Where do you stand on GM?

Future Foods

Science Museum asks: Where do you stand on GM?

The Science Museum will open a new exhibition which takes an investigative look into the global food crisis and the debate surrounding genetically modified (GM) crops. The exhibition will be officially launched on 17 December in the Antenna gallery, with a speech from Professor John Beddington, Government Chief Scientific Advisor.

This event will be a call for people to enter the GM debate by familiarising themselves with the issues presented in the exhibition and to attend a follow-up debate on GM foods at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre on 22 January 2009.

Since the 1990s GM has been a controversial subject. Now, with the food crisis highlighting the need to increase food production, the subject is again being hotly debated among groups from government ministers and farmers to action groups and scientists.

The exhibition, Future Foods, explores GM technology and the alternatives. It asks visitors where they stand in today’s GM debate by presenting them with the latest scientific evidence.

Set against the backdrop of the current global food crisis, the exhibition will provide an explanation of what genetic modification is and explore how we might reinvent agricultural methods. It will also look at how GM crops could help provide a solution to the food crisis.

Emma Hedderwick, Exhibition Content Leader said, “GM is a hot topic, with a lot of opinion about the risks on both sides of the debate. By looking at the latest GM and non-GM options for improving crop yields, this exhibition provides visitors with the current arguments around GM, empowering them with the knowledge to make their own decisions and join in the debate.”

Visitors are encouraged to attend the associated GM debate at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre on 22 January, where they will have a chance to voice their opinions on the subject and ask questions to the guest experts.

The exhibition is sponsored by CGIAR and will run for six months in the Antenna science news gallery from 17 December 2008. The Antenna gallery is devoted entirely to new developments in the fast-paced world of science and technology.

Notes

The Science Museum’s Wellcome Wing has been made possible by two major benefactions. In the first major lottery award to the sciences, the Heritage Lottery Fund has contributed £23m and, in one of the largest grants ever made to a museum in this country, the Wellcome Trust, the independent medical research charity, has donated £17.75m.

Further generous support for the Antenna gallery is provided by Nature.

The CGIAR and Genetic Modification

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), established in 1971, is a strategic partnership of countries, international and regional organisations and private foundations supporting the work of 15 international agricultural research Centres. In collaboration with national agricultural research systems, civil society and the private sector, the CGIAR fosters sustainable agricultural growth through high-quality science aimed at benefiting the poor through stronger food security, better human nutrition and health, higher incomes and improved management of natural resources.

Around seven percent of CGIAR research is dedicated to exploring new technologies which offer solutions to the global food crisis, with about three percent of research related to GM crops. CGIAR rigorously assesses the benefits and risks of all new technologies along with the social and environmental implications. The CGIAR is supporting the Future Foods exhibition at the Science Museum, to provide an opportunity for a public science-based debate on the roles of such technologies in meeting future challenges for agriculture. For further information visit www.cgiar.org.