- Home >
- News & Events >
- News >
- Natural Resources news >
- Archive >
- 2003 >
- Shropshire 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
Shropshire goes gm-free18 July 2003
Shropshire became the latest county council to vote to go GM-free. The move, on the last day of the official GM public debate, was warmly welcomed by Friends of the Earth, who launched its GM-free Britain campaign last year.
Support was overwhelming with the council voting 35-2 for a GM-free Shropshire. Measures voted through include applying to prevent GM crops from being grown in Shropshire using a European law, and steps to prevent GM crops on council-controlled land. Shropshire County Council had carried out its own survey to gather the views of people living in the area which found that a massive 94% were against commercially growing GM crops. It had also consulted with tenant farmers to help inform its decision. The Government will not confirm exactly how the outcome of the public debate, due to report in September, will feed in to the decision on whether to grow GM crops in the UK.
"This is fantastic news," said Friends of the Earth's GM Campaigner, Clare Oxborrow. "Shropshire council has made a huge effort to listen to people in its area and has responded to their concerns by voting to go GM-free. As the official GM public debate ends, this move sends a clear message to the Government that people in Shropshire don't want their food, farming and environment threatened by GM pollution. The Government must now promise to listen to the outcome of the public debate and refuse to allow GM crops to be commercially grown in the UK"
Shropshire joins a number of local councils calling for GM-free areas. The Government is expected to decide whether or not to allow GM crops to be commercially grown in the UK later this year.
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 "Shropshire goes gm-free" in our forum