The war between citizens and Big Food Inc is an asymmetrical affair yet, as with David and Goliath, informed consumer resistance can be disproportionately effective. GM Free Me is a case in point. This striking, new online ‘visual petition’ is an alternative National Portrait Gallery of real people exasperated with regulators who bow the knee to companies hell-bent on forcing GM on to our plates.

GM Free Me stacks up more ‘selfies’ each day that capture the persistent grassroots opposition in the UK to GM: “We want politicians, regulators, rent-a-quote scientists and industry lobbyists to look us in the eye, to take seriously the many, very serious concerns about the failure of GM to deliver on any of its promises, and the risks it poses to us all”.

Genetic engineering has recently acquired a smooth new brand ambassador in the form of synthetic biology (synbio).

“GM has aquired a smooth new brand ambassador in the form of synbio”

Synbio has been called ‘extreme genetic engineering’, but this doesn’t give the full flavour. Instead of swapping genes from one species to another, as in GM, synbio creates entirely artificial forms of life, or reprograms natural organisms such as yeasts and algae, to do things they would not naturally do.

While scientists and regulators grapple with the potential environmental and human health risks it poses, products made from virtually unregulated synthetically modified organisms (SMOs) are silently slipping into our homes.

But when synbio has been ‘outed’, it has received a less than rapturous response. Keen to defend its premium ‘natural’ image, Häagen-Dazs, for instance, has announced that it won’t use synbio vanilla in its ice cream.

In a non-food application, Ecover walked into a consumer storm in the US and UK when its intention to use oils, made by the Solazyme company from synbio algae, emerged.

As lawsuits challenging the use, or misuse, of the word ‘natural’ pile up in the US, companies now linked with synbio, such as Unilever and Elizabeth Arden, can expect repeated challenges from unconvinced citizens. Wise players will keep well away from GM Round Two, or face a very real reputational risk.

Joanna Blythman is a journalist and author of What to Eat 

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