Action Briefing Jun 2003- Jul 2003
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

West Midlands News

GM-free Warwickshire: 52 votes for, none against

At around 9.30am on Tuesday 20th May a dozen or so of us from the Warwickshire GM Awareness Group set up our stall outside the Shire Hall in Warwick. We were offering the county councillors locally grown produce such as organic apple juice from Snitterfield Fruit Farm and bread made from flour milled at Wellsbourne Flour Mill to highlight how wholesome “real food” can be.

Councillors from all parties told us they would support the motion being put by Ken Browne (Labour cabinet member for Transport, the Environment and Rural Affairs) calling on the Government to provide legal protection for Warwickshire as a GM-free area. But no-one expected the overwhelming support shown in the debate. Seventeen councillors spoke, only two of which had any doubt that the precautionary principle should apply to GM.

For the Conservatives Helen McCarthy of the Women’s Institute spoke of the many possible dangers of introducing GM. After a 90 minute debate, which was for the most part very well informed, the vote was 52 for the motion, none against and 5 abstentions (2 members were not in the chamber). Councillor Peter Barnes of the Liberal Democrats, who is an organic farmer from near Stratford, said he was delighted with the result of the debate.

This is a great victory, but the EU have still to ratify the ban on GM crops under Article 19 of a European Directive - by no means a forgone conclusion. The EU rules on strict labelling of GM food are still to be approved and the USA is threatening a trade war if the EU does not accept their GM. The government debate on GM ends officially on 18th July.

Dave Passingham, Stratford-upon-Avon Friends of the Earth

The players at the shire gave a truly improvised performance on 20th May. The matinee show opened with a monologue from Ken Browne (Lab) and was reinforced by a seconder from the Lib Dems.

That just left the Tories to fight it out between themselves, and in true self-destructive fashion, they did just that. After at least 13 speeches, all from the right and all in favour of the motion, including one immortal line about the ‘dominance of American imperialism ‘, the audience and some of the cast were speechless. Strangely, the one line that was used so often it almost became a catchphrase attacked the motion for not being worded strongly enough.

In a last ditch effort to scupper the motion, a forlorn splinter group amongst the conservatives made a hopeless attempt to pass an amendment that would have passed the buck back to Europe. But they were completely overwhelmed, and that was just by their own side. For a final scene this was a bit lacklustre but the audience were truly inspired by the result.

With luck, this play will be seen at more venues across the land. Catch it while you can. For those wanting to help with the next stage of the campaign, Warwickshire GM Awareness Group will meet on Sunday 8th June. For details contact Jenny Sansom on 0247 667 6948, or Dave Passingham on 07973 846605.

Mark Hammond, Rugby Friends of the Earth

The Shropshire GM-Free register has now been completed and was handed to handed to Councillor John Stevens on June 5th. The register was started two years ago by Shrewsbury Food Action for growers to register their intent to keep their land GM-free. The list now includes over 500 names from large farmers to small gardeners from all over the county and tied in nicely with the GM-free Shropshire debate at the Shirehall on June 9th. A resolution to make Shropshire GM-free has been put to the County Council and is being considered by their Sustainability Commission. Although these resolutions aren’t binding on Central Government they do send a powerful message of the desire to keep (at least some) areas of the country free of commercial GM crops.

Dave Green of Shrewsbury Food Action stated:

“There are over 80 registered organic growers in Shropshire and they are widely dispersed. There are also many more growers who aren’t organic but still wish to keep their land free of genetic contamination. The number of people who have signed the GM- Free Shropshire register is testament to this. Farming in Shropshire could be greatly harmed if GM crops are grown here and could benefit greatly from the County being kept GM Free”.

Dave Green Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth