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- Supermarkets back organic farming bill
- 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
Supermarkets back organic farming bill25 October 2000
Supermarket giants Sainsbury's and Iceland today told a committee of MPs that more Government support is needed for organic farming. They said that they would like to offer more British organic products but cannot because of the lack of supply. As a result 70 per cent of organic food in UK shops is imported from abroad. The supermarkets were giving evidence to the Commons Agriculture Committee.
Iceland and Sainsbury's are both supporting the Organic Food and Farming Targets Bill (as are Asda, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose) which aims for a significant increase in organic farmland in England and Wales. Campaigners today called on Tony Blair to give the Bill his personal backing.
Although there is massive demand for organic food and hundreds of farmers want to convert, UK farmers are only producing a fraction of the organic food that is required. Unfortunately Government support has been woefully inadequate: organic conversion money has not been available to farmers this year and the money ear-marked next year (140 million over seven years) is not enough.
"It is environmental and economic madness that our farmers are missing out on the organic boom. With the right support from Government organic farming in the UK could bring huge benefits to rural areas, bring back birds and butterflies to our farmland, and make organic food available to more people," said Friends of the Earth Real Food Campaigner Sandra Bell. "The supermarkets realise this, consumers realise this - its time for Ministers to wake up to the potential of organic farming and give it the backing it deserves."
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