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- MEPs back tougher GM labels
- 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
MEPs back tougher GM labels2 July 2003
Strasbourg, 2 July 2003. The European Parliament's vote in favour of allowing member states to take action to prevent contamination from genetically modified (GM) crops has been warmly welcomed by Friends of the Earth Europe.
The MEPs also voted for tougher labelling of GM food and traceability of crops. GM animal feed will now have to be labelled for the first time.
The vote on preventing contamination now gives countries the power to impose strict restrictions on GM crops in order to protect organic and conventional crops. EU research has consistently stated that contamination will be widespread if commercial growing of GMO crops increased. But until now member states have been virtually powerless to take preventative action.
Although the new legislation is an important step in the right direction Friends of the Earth is nevertheless concerned that:
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The threshold for GMO contamination is too high. MEPs compromised with Ministers and agreed on 0.9%. Current testing techniques can reliably detect GM s low as 0.1%
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The contamination of food and crops by unlicensed GM material will be allowed for 3 years;
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Member states "may", rather than "shall", take action to prevent contamination of neighbouring farms.
Friends of the Earth is also calling for strict liability to make biotech companies liable for any contamination or environmental problems. The new rules will now go to the Council of EU Agricultural Ministers, probably in July. If the Council agrees (which is almost certain), the new proposals will be operational in the autumn of 2003.
"This new legislation is a welcome step in the right direction and will allow countries to take action to protect our food and farming from genetic pollution," said Friends of the Earth Europe's GMO Campaign Coordinator, Geert Ritsema. "It will also give consumers and farmers more information so that they can choose whether or not to take part in the biotech industry's massive GM experiment. But there are still gaping holes in the legislation, particularly over liability. The EU must make biotech companies fully liable for their actions before any GM food or crop is approved."
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