Genetically modified food

Other resources
17 July 2008

The following resources will provide you with background information, and further tips on how to run a successful campaign:

Promotional materials for your campaign

Promote your campaign using these GM-Free Britain materials:

Action postcard: Protect our food from GM contamination
(PDF† format - 1.7MB) Sep 2007
This postcard urges the Government to protect our food and farming from GM contamination. We want to get as many members of the public as possible to send it to their MP. Please contact us to order free copies.

Information leaflet: What's on your plate
(PDF† format - 3.5MB) Sep 2007
Our public information leaflet can be used to let people know what's wrong with GM food and crops. Please contact us to order free copies. This leaflet is available in english and welsh.

Flags
(PDF† format - 996K) Oct 2002
Cut-out GM-Free Britain flags and instructions which you can use to make bunting or hand held flags.

Poster (A2)
(PDF† format - 134K) Oct 2002
A2 sized colour poster of the GM-Free Britain logo and slogan. Note: It prints on 4 sheets of A4 paper which can be fastened together.

Poster (A4)
(PDF† format - 95K) Oct 2002
A4 sized colour poster of the GM-Free Britain logo and slogan.

Leaflet (A4)
(PDF† format - 368K) Dec 2002
Introductory leaflet describing the aims of the campaign.

GM-Free Britain window stickers
Based on the GM-Free Britain logo design, you can order these stickers for free.

Background on Government's plans to allow GM contamination

Response to Defra's consultation (PDF† - 791K) October 2006
Friends of the Earth's response to Government proposals for managing the coexistence of GM, conventional and organic crops in England.

GM 'coexistence' consultation - Legal opinion (PDF† - 73K) October 2006
Details of the legal flaws in the Government's proposals.

Step by step guide for England (PDF - 176K)
A step-by-step guide specifically produced to help people to respond to the English consultation.

GM contamination (PDF - 345K) Mar 2004
This briefing describes the minimum measures that would be necessary to ensure that food chains, crops and the countryside remained free of GM contamination.

Contamination Briefings

These briefings are part of a series explaining the difficulties involved in growing GM and non-GM crops together ('co-existence'), and why a strong legal framework is needed to deal with this issue.

  1. Seed contamination
    (PDF format - 56K) Sep 2004 - updated Jan 06
  2. Food contamination
    (PDF format - 55K) Sep 2004 - updated Jan 06
  3. 3. Gene escape
    (PDF format - 59K) Sep 2004 - updated Jan 06
  4. 4. Bees, honey and GM crops
    (PDF format - 57K) Sep 2004 - updated Jan 06
  5. 5. Liability and insurance
    (PDF format - 60K) Sep 2004 - updated Jan 06
  6. 6. Voluntary GM-free zones
    (PDF format - 48K) Sep 2004 - updated Jan 06
  7. 7. The legal situation
    (PDF format - 53K) Feb 2006

Background information on the GM potato trials

The Government has approved for experimental trials of genetically modified potatoes at two UK sites. They've already been planted near Cambridge, but the East Yorkshire trial has been delayed until after 2007 following strong local opposition. The GM potatoes are produced by biotechnology company BASF and have been engineered for blight resistance.

Unfortunately DEFRA has also put in place weak conditions for the trials. When BASF applied to grow the potatoes in Ireland their Government imposed strict conditions. This led to BASF deciding not to go ahead with the trials.

Friends of the Earth is opposing the trials because:

  • They're unnecessary - blight resistant potatoes are already available and are being further developed through conventional crop breeding.
  • There's no market - consumers and food companies have rejected GM foods. The British Potato Council is opposing the trials because of concerns over consumer perception.
  • They risk contaminating future potato crops - from GM potato 'groundkeepers' left in the ground after harvest that can persist for up to seven years and sprout to produce new GM tubers; and from GM seeds germinating as a result of pollen transferred by insects from the GM crop to nearby crops.
  • No safety data - BASF provide no evidence of any data showing that the GM potatoes are safe.
  • There are more sustainable solutions - GM potatoes offer a targeted techno-fix unlikely to provide a long term solution.

For more details about why we don't think they should be grown please read our consultation response.

In-depth information on how to keep your local area GM-free

We've prepared a range of detailed background information briefings on genetic modification.

Keeping your area GM free
(PDF† format 307K) October 2003
A guide to EU decision-making for Local Authorities and National Parks. Decisions on applications to grow GM crops in Europe are being made now. This report provides guidance on how to make a case for exemption under Article 19 of the EU Directive on GMOs for each crop.

Regional information to accompany the report:

GM-free Local Areas
(PDF† format - 146K) Mar 2003, updated Jul 2004
A guide to using the law to protect your area from GM crops. Including what 'GM-free' means, how you can use EU legislation to help your campaign and what your local authority can do.

GM-free Britain Sticky Questions
(PDF† format - 37K) Mar 2003, updated Jul 2004
Answers to some of those difficult questions, including Friends of the Earth's position on GM, the process of commercialisation and how to get your local authority involved.

Market Forces
(PDF† format - 124K) Oct 2002, updated Feb 2004
For the past four years as a response to customer demand the majority of UK food manufacturers, retailers and fast food outlets have not been using GM ingredients. It is clear that there continues to be no demand for GM food in the UK.

GM food safety
(PDF† format - 137K) Oct 2002
The safety of GM foods remains in serious doubt. A senior member of the British Medical Association has called for GM trials to be halted and the head of the Government's GM food safety committee has admitted that possible hazards of GM foods could have been missed.

Economic impact of GM
(PDF† format - 127K) Oct 2002
The Government and the biotech industry are promoting genetically modified (GM) crops on the economic benefits they will supposedly bring. However, after several years of growing them in the US, the evidence of the economic benefits is far from clear.

The farm scale trials
(PDF† format - 113K) Oct 2002
In 2000, in response to concerns raised by English Nature, the UK Government introduced a three year programme of farm scale trials of genetically modified (GM) herbicide tolerant crops. From the beginning, the trials have been criticised by environment organisations, local residents, and even the Government's GM watchdog, the Agriculture Environmental Biotechnology Commission (AEBC).

Gene flow
(PDF† format - 126K) Oct 2002, updated Feb 2004
Recent research has revealed that the GM crops closest to commercialisation in the UK pose a particularly high risk of contaminating other crops. This raises concerns about how GM and non-GM crops can grow and co-exist in the future.

GM crops and food security
(PDF† format - 120K) Oct 2002
Many people, not least those who live in countries where hunger persists, believe that a technological fix will at best address the symptoms of hunger and malnutrition, but not the causes. Many fear that corporate control over the food chain through patents and the ownership of seeds may even exacerbate the problem.

The GM regulatory process
(PDF† format - 77K) Oct 2002
GM legislation originates in Europe and is implemented in the UK under domestic laws. Currently, new directives are being developed by the European Union (EU) to introduce traceability for GM foods and increased labelling requirements.

Herbicide use and GM crops
(PDF† format - 129K) Oct 2002, updated Feb 2004
If GM crops get the commercial go-ahead in the UK, herbicide tolerant crops will be the first to be grown. For the biotechnology industry they offer substantial opportunities for increasing profits, as they own both the GM seed and the herbicide to which it is tolerant.

Liability and GM crops
(PDF† format - 152K) Oct 2002
Currently there is no legislation to require biotech companies to pay compensation or clear up any damage caused by their crops. If GM food and crops are as safe as the industry says they are, why won't it accept liability for any damage caused?

Seed purity
(PDF† format - 130K) Oct 2002
In order to protect the public's right to choose non-GM food, or for farmers to grow non-GM crops, it is essential that seed stocks remain free of GMOs. This will become increasingly difficult to achieve if GM crops are grown widely in the UK.

T25 Maize
(PDF† format - 123K) Oct 2002
In the course of Friends of the Earth's investigations into the approval of T25, serious failings in the regulatory process and flaws in the scientific research were discovered.

GM-free Europe campaign

Keeping Europe GM-free
(PDF† format - 587K) May 2005
A key briefing for campaigners on the GM-free areas petition and how to get support for it locally

GM-free areas Petition
(PDF† format - 33K) May 2005
This new Europe-wide petition is for local authorities and politicians across Europe to sign, and calls for the democratic right for regions and local authorities to be able to decide whether GM crops can be grown in their areas or not.

GM-free areas - your right to decide
(PDF† format - 211K) May 2005
This briefing is for local authorities and politicians. It introduces them to the GM-free areas petition and explains why they should sign up.

GM Free Britain stamp

© Friends of the Earth

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