Newsletter
- Home >
- News & Events >
- News >
- Natural Resources news >
- Archive >
- 2003 >
- Government may ignore public opinion on GM crops
- 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
Government may ignore public opinion on GM crops19 May 2003
Friends of the Earth reacted angrily to comments by Environment Minister Michael Meacher suggesting that the Government may allow GM crops to be grown commercially in the UK regardless of public opinion. The Government's public consultation on GM crops begins in June.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Farming today, Mr Meacher said that a ban on GM crops would be illegal unless there is scientific proof that they harm people or the environment. Last week the US made a formal complaint to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over the EU's de-facto moratorium on issuing new GM licenses.
Major issues such as the co-existence of GM and non-GM crops and liability for economic and environmental harm are still being hotly debated in Europe and the UK.
"The public has made it perfectly clear that they do not want to eat GM food," said Friends of the Earth's GM campaigner, Pete Riley. "Allowing GM crops to be commercially grown would threaten our food, farming and environment with GM pollution, and take away people's right to say no to GMOs (genetically modified organisms). There is genuine scientific uncertainty surrounding the potential impacts these crops have on people, the environment and the food chain. But this Government is so pro-GM it chooses to ignore them.
"Next month, the Government is launching its public debate on GM crops. But if it is to have any credibility, ministers must guarantee beforehand that if the public say they don't want GM crops, the Government will not give them the commercial go-ahead. Without that guarantee, there seems little point in debating the issue."
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 "Government may ignore public opinion on GM crops" in our forum