Why have the Scottish Government banned GM crops?

The SNP Scottish Government took the decision to opt out of the use of GM crops to protect Scotland’s environment and support Scottish agriculture.

Scotland is world renowned for its natural, high quality food and drink, and this is greatly promoted both at home and abroad by our reputation for being clean and green. This is a key strength of Scottish agriculture – so it’s important that we take steps to protect this.

The use of GM crops could threaten the integrity of this brand, and therefore banning their cultivation is central to its protection and promotion.

We will maintain our status of GM free cultivation and continue to adhere to EU standards and rules on pesticides and fertilisers. In particular, we will work to limit their use in domestic and community gardening.

We will also ban the sale of peat related gardening products – and review and reform urea fertiliser use to minimise it and cut ammonia emissions, while encouraging more conversion of slurry into biofuel.