Genetically engineered organisms in food and farming are regulated, first and foremost, under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Whatever subsequent legislation has appeared over the years, this is their appropriate context.

In recent years the UK government has sought to recontextualise genetic technologies in the narrowest possible terms, as a science and innovation issue. The result was the 2023 Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act – a highly contested piece of legislation which removes all regulatory control from genetically modified gene-edited organisms in England and imposes them on the whole of the UK market, unlabelled, unmonitored and untraceable.