Other resources

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

• Promotional materials for your campaign
• Background on the Government's plans to allow GM contamination
• Background information on the GM potato trials
• In-depth information on how to keep your local area GM-free
• Background information on the GM-free Europe 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.

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.

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 given approval for experimental trials of genetically modified potatoes at two UK sites. They have 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 are unnecessary - blight resistant potatoes are already available and are being further developed through conventional crop breeding.
• There is 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

Our GM-Free Britain team has 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:

• East of England (PDF† format 645K)
• East Midlands (PDF† format 648K)
• North East (PDF† format 602K)
• North West (PDF† format 602K)
• South East (including London) (PDF† format 604K)
• South West (PDF† format 1031K)
• West Midlands (PDF† format 508K)
• Wales (PDF† format 637K)
• Yorkshire & Humber (PDF† format 603K)
  

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 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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

GM-free Europe campaign

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.

†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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