Newsletter
- Home >
- News & Events >
- News >
- Natural Resources news >
- Archive >
- 2000 >
- Top insurer says no to GM pollution cover
- 2000
- Advanta admits separation distances in UK far closer than Canada
- Advanta to pay up
- Britain's babies back baby food ban
- Buy it from farmers' markets
- Buy your festive feast from local farmers
- Cadbury's admits its chocolate contains lindane
- Call for new biotech commission to halt spread of GM seeds
- Children get raw deal from Government
- Euro MPs fail GM Test
- Farm scale trials must be called off
- First UK organic beer festival held in Birmingham
- FOE responds to Prince Philip's confidence about GM foods
- Food Standards Agency could do better
- GM farm scale trial is useless
- GM farm scale trials threaten UK honey
- GM farmers pull out of trials
- GM scientist deserves sack says Friends of the Earth
- GM trials are a farce
- Government gambling with countryside
- Government in chaos over GM seeds
- Government in shambles over GM mistake
- Government prepares to decide commercial approval for GM crops before trial ends
- Government proposes to trash GM trials
- Hormone disrupting chemicals found in baby food
- Iceland to stock organic food at non-organic prices
- Illegal GM ingredients found in supermarkets
- Lindane is banned - nearly
- More GM crops set for Wales
- MPs debate new law on GM liability
- New fears over impact of GM crops on birdlife
- Public wants pesticides banned from supermarket food
- Scientists slam GM research
- Supermarket Real Food sham
- Top insurer says no to GM pollution cover
- Wales can ban GM
- Welsh agriculture secretary bottles out of Assembly decision on GM
- Aventis criticised by Government barrister
- Baby Blair greeted with hamper of Real Food
- Biosafety Protocol Agreed
- Biotech giant clams up at GM Seed List Hearing
- Call for pesticide tax
- Church advisers say no to GM crop trials
- Diners still worry about GM food
- FOE slams Krebs over organic food
- GM contamination inevitable admits Meacher
- GM food scare hits US taco lovers
- GM seed fiasco means farmers start to dig up crops
- GM-free diet for Iceland livestock
- Government GM policy in tatters
- Government set to give go-ahead to commercial licensing
- Hold on the milk says top scientist
- Kiss of death for GM seed
- Pesticides level rise in fruit AND veg
- Promising green speech from Blair?
- Shock admission that GM crops are already growing in the UK
- Supermarkets back organic farming bill
Top insurer says no to GM pollution cover17 February 2000
The UK's leading farm insurance company will not offer farmers insurance against GM pollution. The decision by NFU Mutual is likely to be of major concern to farmers whose neighbours are running GM farm scale trials.
Friends of the Earth obtained a copy of a letter from the NFU Mutual to a farmer in Lincolnshire. It says that loss of GM-free status, the potential loss of crops through cross- pollination and the loss of the value of farmland through GM pollution is something the company cannot offer insurance against.
The issue was due to be raised in Parliament by Alan Simpson MP (Lab - Nottingham South) who recently presented the Genetically Modified Food and Producer Liability Bill to MPs. This Bill, which is being supported by FOE, places strict liability for harm caused to the environment and human health on the companies releasing or selling the GM crops or food. It also requires the companies to ensure that they have adequate insurance cover and to create a compensation fund.
"In the headlong rush to get GM crops in our fields and GM food on our plates the crucial issue of liability has been ignored. The Government must act and tell us who is going to pick up the bill if this new technology damages peoples health, livelihoods or the environment. The current Government position of doing nothing cannot continue," said Friends of the Earth Biotechnology Campaigner Pete Riley.
Get these updates first
If you would like these news updates to be emailed to you as soon as they come out, then join our real food mailing list.
Register Here
Discuss " Top insurer says no to GM pollution cover" in our forum