Newsletter
- Home >
- News & Events >
- News >
- Natural Resources news >
- Archive >
- 2003 >
- Cornwall goes GM-free
- 2003
- 10 reasons supermarket mergers are bad for consumers, farmers and small businesses
- Asda spinach over pesticide levels
- Asda/Wal-Mart exploits planning loophole
- Biting back at GM crops
- Blair sacks Meacher
- Committee Stage for Recycling Bill
- Cornwall goes GM-free
- Credibility of GM public debate hangs by a thread
- Cumbria goes GM-free
- Deplorable attack on GM scientific critic
- Devon votes to go GM-free
- Dorset demands caution over GM crops
- EU commission calls for GM contamination of organic food to be allowed
- EU meets US over GM trade war
- Farmers and consumers must have a say in Wal-Mart takeover
- Fat cats fight over Safeway, consumers and farmers are real losers
- Fat-cat Tesco: putting on the pounds at farmers' expense
- Garden pesticides health warning
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM beet research answers very few questions
- GM contamination - Government experts disagree
- GM jury challenges FSA policy on labelling
- GM public debate fiasco
- GM study highlights need for urgent rethink over GM crops
- GM trade war - who decides what we eat?
- GM trade war accelerates
- GM won't cure hunger in Africa
- GM-free food could be "impossible"
- Government agrees to delay GM debate
- Government failing to regulate supermarkets, says new report
- Government launches GM debate
- Government may ignore public opinion on GM crops
- Government must address GM debate chaos say groups
- Government must clarify role of GM debate
- Government opposes tough Euro GM rules
- Government report on economics of GM crops
- Government to publish GM science review
- Government urges MEPs to vote for GM food
- Government warns GM farmers over contamination threat
- Hundreds of pesticides banned
- Hundreds turn out for Waste lobby
- Illegal GM contamination threat
- Is Tesco spin on Safeway takeover a joke?
- Lake District National Park first to go GM-free
- Lake District National Park to host GM debate
- Local campaigners call for GM-free Britain election pledge
- MEPs back tougher GM labels
- Ministers try to stop GM food labels
- Morrisons take-over bad news for consumers
- MPs call for extension to GM national debate
- New analysis casts doubt on GM farm scale evaluations
- New maps reveal massive extent of GM pollution threat
- Pesticide review fails consumers and farmers
- Recycling Bill clears the Commons
- Safeway decision must wait for code review
- Sainsbury's: making life taste bitter for banana growers
- Scepticism as GM debate ends
- Second reading for Recycling Bill
- Shameful EU plans for growing GM crops
- Shropshire goes gm-free
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- South Gloucestershire votes to go GM-free
- South Hams votes to go GM-free
- Stop Safeway stitch-up, alliance demands
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarkets continue to shun GM food
- Supermarkets must be blocked from Safeway takeover
- The US ghost fleet – behind the hype
- UK votes to keep highly toxic pesticide
- UN treaty regulating GM to become law
- Uncertainty over GM safety
- US files WTO GM complaint
- US threat over GM food
- Warwickshire goes GM-free
- Why the Safeway take-over must be stopped
Cornwall goes GM-free1 April 2003
Cornwall County Council voted on 1 April to go GM-free, joining a growing protest against GM crops at local authority level across the country. Pressure to go GM-free is particularly strong in the south-west of England with South Gloucestershire and South Hams District Council voting to go GM-free in February this year. Devon County Council has stated its opposition to GM trials, and called on the South West Regional Assembly to take a position on GM. North Radstock Town Council also voted to go GM-free in December 2002.
In a full meeting, Cornwall County Council voted to keep the county of Cornwall free of GM crops and GM food and feed, and to call on the Secretary of State to provide legal protection for this county as a GM-free area, under European law. Under this law, councils can request legal protection of their areas from particular GM crops. Friends of the Earth GM Coordinator in the South West, Keith Hatch said: "This is fantastic news for people in Cornwall and in the whole of the south-west. The public have made it clear they do not want GM crops in Cornwall, or anywhere else in the region. The Regional Assembly must now act to protect the area as a whole."
"Friends of the Earth is delighted that Cornwall County Council has voted to go GM-free," said Friends of the Earth GM Campaigner, Clare Oxborrow. "Around Britain there is growing opposition to GM crops and food. Cornwall's decision sends a strong message to the Government that local people don't want their food, farms and environment threatened by GM crops. It is time now for the Government to listen and not allow GM crops to be grown for sale in the UK."
Calls for GM-free areas are also being considered in other parts of Britain. The Lake District National Park Authority announced that it will hold a major conference with other National Parks Authorities to consider becoming GM-free. And the National Assembly for Wales is maintaining its GM-free stance. The Government is expected to decide later this year whether or not to allow GM crops to be commercially grown across the UK. Commercialisation risks widespread GM contamination of food, crops and the environment. An NOP survey published in October showed that 57 per cent do not want GM crops to be commercially grown across the UK.
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 "Cornwall goes GM-free" in our forum