Action Briefing June 2004 - July 2004
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

GM maize: corn but not forgotten

Bayer CropScience shelved plans to commercialise their genetically modified (GM) maize barely weeks after the Government had granted conditional approval to the crop's commercial growing in the UK.

The biotech company admitted that restrictions proposed by the Government on the cultivation of GM maize ChardonLL made the crop “economically non-viable”. The decision is a significant victory for Friends of the Earth and other campaigners, and a body blow to the GM industry. After 14 years of research and development in the UK, no commercial growing of any GM crop has been achieved and this is likely to be the case until at least 2008.

Serious question over the safety and performance of ChardonLL were revealed during the ‘seed list’ hearings of 2000-2002. Friends of the Earth forced these hearings after attempts were made to place the GM maize seed on the UK national seed list. Over 220 individuals and 60 organisations submitted written and oral objections to the hearings, temporarily succeeding in keeping ChardonLL off the list.

As pressure builds on the European Commission to approve new GM foods, all over Europe GM-free areas are springing up in defiance of any new approvals (see www.gmofree-europe.org). To date, more than forty UK local authorities, including all six counties in the southwest of England, have passed policies opposing GM crops, bringing to 14 million the total UK population living within areas with GM-free status.

Zero Tolerance
New labelling laws came into force across Europe in April aimed at giving consumers better information about GM ingredients in food. A GM content of 0.9% or more will now require a product to be labelled: “This product contains genetically modified organisms”. For the first time, GM animal feed will also have to be labelled.

However, products accidentally contaminated by up to 0.5 per cent (most likely processed "convenience" foods) will not legally require labelling, nor will products from animals fed GM feed.

A survey by Friends of the Earth in April 2004 revealed the UK’s leading supermarkets and food manufacturers will continue to reject GM food, with most saying they will not need to label any of their own-brand products when the new regulations come into force. Friends of the Earth’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ campaign calls on supermarkets to go further and eliminate all GM ingredients down to the lowest level of detection and getting rid of GM animal feed in the production of animal products such as milk and meat.

Friends of the Earth is calling on supermarkets to put in place zero tolerance policies to: eliminate all GM ingredients and derivatives down to 0.1 per cent (the current lowest reliable level of detection); stop selling own brand products such as milk, eggs, meat and fish from animals that have been fed GM feed; and remove (and refuse to stock) any products from their shelves that contain GM ingredients.

James Botham

Take Action
Have you seen any GM labelled foods? Send Friends of the Earth the details! Call 0207 490 1555 or email info@foe.co.uk with the product name, date spotted, brand, the supermarket/store and the town/city. Alternatively, you can text 83248 (starting the message with 'foe gmo').