Published in the Sunday Express
Sir Keir Starmer must stand firm against the EU when it comes to post-brexit freedom to develop gene-edited crops banned by Eurocrats, an MP has warned.
George Freeman urged the Prime Minister not to “give away” the UK’S freedom to pioneer in plant breeding and regulation, such as the development of disease-resistant and drought-resistant crops.
He said: “Agritech is a huge global growth market for both exports and investment. For it to thrive, we must have policies in place that incentivise our farmers to “grow more with less”.
“Europe is also a key market – for both UK food and agritech. One of the real benefits of Brexit was the freedom to develop disease-resistant and drought-resistant crops, such as the blight-resistant potato.
“As the government reduces trade friction with the European market, we mustn’t give away the freedom to pioneer in plant breeding and regulation, but instead be an innovative accelerator testbed where new innovations can be tested on their way to the EU market.”
The Express’s Give Us a Proper Brexit crusade has called for the government to slash red tape for businesses.
The UK introduced the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 after Brexit, diverging from EU rules by allowing lighter regulation for gene-edited crops. Both the National Farmers’ Union and MPS on the Commons’ Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee have raised concerns over these technological advances being sacrificed in order to reach a deal with the EU.
Mr Freeman said: “Although few in Whitehall seem to understand it, the global market for agricultural and food technology is exploding with billions of pounds of investment as nations look to secure food supplies for growing populations.
“To avoid mass famines, the globe has to double food production on the same land area using half as much water and energy.”
He added: “The UK is a powerhouse in agricultural research and development, and agritech innovation – Norfolk especially – but we’ve been very bad at commercialising it globally.”
Norfolk’s Broadland Food Innovation Centre is home to a cluster of agricultural food innovators such as Condimentum, the home of Colman’s mustard powder, and hand-made frozen meals brand Farmyard.
James Smith, CEO of Condimentum, told the Express during a tour of the 25,000sq ft facility that the consortium was set up by the English Mustard Growers’ and Norfolk Mint Growers’ co-operatives.
It is one of only three mills worldwide capable of producing double superfine mustard flour.
The factory makes mustard for Colman’s parent company Unilever, which closed its Carrow Works site in Norwich in 2020 after 160 years. Talking about how Colman’s is integral to
Norfolk, Mr Smith said: “Mustard is probably one of those legacy condiments that have such a heritage.”
They also process fresh mint from local farmers within two hours of harvest. Mr Smith said Brexit had not impacted hugely in terms of sourcing raw materials. He added: “But goods coming from Europe into the UK got slowed down quite a bit.we were at that time selling predominantly into the UK so it didn’t really affect us. I think longer term, we’re going to find challenges around regulatory diversion... especially around farming operations like the use of pesticides and insecticides.
“There is some cost impact that we’ve seen and some logistic challenges that have come but I would say that’s levelled a little bit now. But I think for us in the food industry generally, diversion of regulation is going to be a big challenge we need to keep an eye on.”
Meanwhile, nearby food innovator Hannah Springham and her chef husband Andrew Jones create Michelin restaurantlevel food for first and business class airline travellers out of Heathrow and Gatwick.
The pair closed their fine-dining restaurant Farmyard, which featured in Michelin’s guide, in 2024 after seven years.
When the Express visited their kitchen of the same name, parmesan cream sauce with black pepper was bubbling away beside lentil bolognese in industrial-sized pots.
Hannah said: “In lockdown, we pivoted to making frozen ready-meals, which was a bit controversial because we were fine dining. My husband, who’s the chef, was like, I didn’t get into chefing to do frozen meals. We’ve just pivoted because somebody in our restaurant came and took away the food on their private jet and said ‘you need to get into airlines’.
Chicken, currently sourced from Europe because of supply chain issues, is their “big seller” and is a staple on flights to the USA every day.
Andrew cooks around 20,000 chicken breasts each month which then get added to other dishes, and the kitchen uses locally sourced vegetables.
Hannah said: “As a small producer and a small business, we hear a lot of talk about the government wanting growth and I think decisions being made more quickly in support of business is really important.
“Quite a lot of the time stuff with government or local council can take a while, and if we have to wait that means we can lose a contract if we can’t act quickly.”
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