Speaking an event organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry in Edinburgh, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale said that the decision taken by the SNP was "not simply a failure of evidence based policy making. It is contempt for the scientific community," she said.
Meanwhile Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called for an evidence-based policy on genetic engineering and biotechnologies. Addressing a Science at the Parliament event at Holyrood, he said: "The Environment Secretary justified it (the ban) as protecting Scotland's 'clean and green brand'. But it isn't clear on what evidence, if any, this decision was made. The Parliament didn't take evidence on a ban or sign up to it. It is illiberal to ban something on the basis of perception, rather than evidence."
However The Scottish Government’s former chief scientific adviser, Anne Glover, has said she is hopeful the SNP “might change” their mind on the banning of genetically-modified (GM) crops.“I hope that on reflection, the Scottish Government will accept that the global scientific consensus is that GM technology is safe and that it may be of future value to Scotland in delivering clean green agriculture by choosing how to apply GM technology in agriculture,” she said. “By restricting ourselves to traditional agricultural practices, we are less likely to be able to go down the path of sustainable climate-safe agriculture. I hope we don’t consign ourselves to ‘old and dirty’ in the mistaken view that it is ‘clean and green’. My experience of the SNP Government is that they know the value of science and evidence in policymaking so I hope their position might change in the future.”