In your field: Thomas Carrick - 'Cattle are near calving and sheep are in good condition'

The technology for altering our agricultural products to benefit production through disease resistance or to enhance the nutritional benefits of a certain crop has been around for decades. It is the political will which is the ultimate stumbling block.

Public opinion in the EU regarding GM food is staunchly against its use and even though there may be the farming skill on the ground and world leading research industry to back it up, development of GM technology has been kept at arms length.

A classic example is Golden Rice which was developed in the 1990s. This is a crop which simply incorporated the gene to produce vitamin A and had the potential to nourish millions of children who attempt to survive on a nutritionally deficient diet of white rice.

Its use was, however, blocked for over two decades by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and also Greenpeace for presenting a threat to human health. Little wonder we don’t always see eye-to-eye.

The term GM is toxic and if we are to realise the potential of gene editing for agriculture, it seems we would need a reinvention of the terms around how we discuss the technology. More ’sustainably improved’, less ’genetically modified’ perhaps.

Simple advances such as widespread polled alleles in cattle would be a start for livestock.

Initial small steps as a demonstration of safety and potential are easily achievable if we have a forward thinking government which is willing to move away from the guilty until proven innocent approach of the EU.