Archived press release

Iceland turns up the heat on Government's organic policy

14 June 2000

Friends of the Earth today congratulated supermarket chain Iceland over its plan to increase dramatically the amount of organic food stocked by the store. Iceland will sell the food at the same price as its non-organic own brand products.

The UK Government has under-invested in organic farming. As a result 80 per cent of Iceland's organic vegetables will come from abroad. 70 per cent of the organic food sold in the UK is imported and only 2 per cent of UK farm land has full organic status. Many more farmers want to go organic but government money to support their conversion has run out. As a result British farmers are losing out on the organic boom. This is why Friends of the Earth and 50 other organisations, including supermarkets, are backing a Bill calling for the Government to set a target for increasing organic production in the UK [1].

Sandra Bell, Real Food Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said
"Once again Iceland has grasped the initiative. The public want Real Food, produced without GMO's and pesticides, at affordable prices. This is what Iceland is going to do. It's now up to the other supermarkets to do the same."

However, this welcome initiative also puts the spotlight on the Government's woeful support for organic farming. It's about time the Government did more to help British farmers be part of a real success story rather than pouring taxpayers money into a GM crops which threatens organic farming and which hardly anyone wants".

Yesterday Environment Minister Michael Meacher admitted that there was no way of preventing GM crops contaminating conventional and organic crops. Friends of the Earth has now renewed its call for the Government to abandon the current GM trials programme.

Millions of pound of taxpayers money is currently being spent on GM farm scale trials, even though they threaten organic and conventional food, and despite the fact that most people in the UK do not want GM food.

[1] The Organic Food and Farming Targets Bill, has been adopted by Paul Tyler MP. It requires the Government to set a target of 30% of farmland in England and Wales to be in organic production by 2010. The Bill has the support of over 200 MPs and over 60 national organisations. The Bill is due for its second reading in July.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust