Say no to GM contamination - England

The Government is planning to introduce new rules that would allow routine, unlabelled, GM contamination of food and farming in England. This would even affect organic food.

Thousands of people have objected to these proposals. And a legal opinion (PDF†) from leading experts says that the proposals are not compliant with EU law in seven important areas.

Although the public consultation has closed, the rules are not yet finalised. You can still help by asking your MP to support our right to choose GM free food and farming.

Former Environment Minister, Michael Meacher MP, joins protesting anti-GM campaigners outside Parliament

Former Environment Minister, Michael Meacher MP, joins campaigners from Friends of the Earth and GM Freeze

We believe that every MP should know about these legal findings.

Please ask your MP to write to the Government demanding that they don't go ahead with these weak rules.

It's a three step process:

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I am writing as one of your constituents to ask you to help protect our right to choose GM free food and farming. I am very concerned that the rules the Government has proposed will fail to do this.  I am also shocked that our Government supported a recent European decision allowing GM contamination of organic food.

The Government has outlined its proposals to allow GM crops to be grown next to organic and conventional crops, so-called 'coexistence'. But the plans are weak. If agreed they will result in routine, unlabelled GM contamination and weak liability for any damage caused.

But by law GM contamination is only allowed if it is truly accidental, and leading European lawyers have found the Government proposals 'fundamentally flawed' and inconsistent with EU law.

And the Government wants to bring in 'coexistence' and liability measures using voluntary codes and secondary legislation. This means that Parliament will not have the opportunity to scrutinise these controversial proposals as it would if the measures were being introduced under primary legislation.

Please would you write to Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Hilary Benn. Please ask how he will ensure that the final 'coexistence' regulations comply with EU law. This is essential to protect our right to choose GM free food, safeguard our health and the environment and ensure biotechnology companies are strictly liable for any damage caused by their products.

I look forward to hearing from you.

* Some MPs do not have an email address and/or fax number. Only contact methods that are available will be shown.

†To view PDF files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visually impaired users can get extra help with these documents from access.adobe.com.

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Main image © Balthazar Serreau/Friends of the Earth

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