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- Cumbria 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
Cumbria goes GM-free24 July 2003
Cumbria became the latest county council to vote to go GM-free. The move was warmly welcomed by Friends of the Earth, who launched its GM-free Britain campaign last year. The Lake District National Park recently backed a similar GM-free policy.
Support was overwhelming with Cumbria County Council voting 64-9 (with three abstentions) for a GM-free Cumbria. Measures voted through include applying, under a European law, to prevent GM crops from being grown in Cumbria, steps to prevent GM crops on council-controlled land, and banning GM food from local food services such as school meals and residential homes.
There are serious concerns about the long term impacts that GM food and crops may have on our health and environment. Earlier this week a Government-sponsored review of GM science admitted to a number of uncertainties and gaps in our knowledge. Furthermore, a Government review of the GM economics, published earlier this month, concluded that there was little market for GM food in the short term, and that its long-term prospects were grim if people continued to reject GM food.
Friends of the Earth launched its GM-free Britain (http://www.gmfreebritain.com/) campaign to persuade local authorities to take action on GM food and crops. Those that have already taken GM-free action include the Welsh National Assembly, Devon, Dorset, Lancashire, Cornwall, Warwickshire, Shropshire and South Gloucestershire.
"This is fantastic news," said Friends of the Earth Cumbria's GM Campaigner, Jill Perry. "Cumbria council has responded to people's concerns by voting to go GM-free. This move sends a clear message to the Government that people in Cumbria don't want their food, farming and environment threatened by GM pollution. The Government should listen and refuse to allow GM crops to be commercially grown in the UK."
The Government is expected to decide whether or not to allow GM crops to be commercially grown in the UK later this year.
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