Action Briefing Dec 2002 - Jan 2003
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

West Midlands News

Shrewsbury FOE’s GM Free Call

Shropshire County Council is being asked to make Shropshire a GM-free county. The call comes from Shrewsbury Food Action and is part of a national campaign set up by Friends of the Earth. The campaign was launched in Shrewsbury by a GM- free lunch in the Square on November 19th. Councillor Martin Beardwell, Speaker of the County Council, agreed to attend the launch and other Councillors were invited.

The Chair of Shrewsbury Food Action, Dave Green, stated:
“This is a crucial time in the GM debate. The field trials are nearly finished and decisions on commercial use will have to be made soon. It’s basically now or never. The European Union has included in it’s rules on GM licensing the possibility of excluding areas from GM farming. This opens up the possibility for Councils to declare that they want their areas to be kept GM Free. Wales has already been declared such a zone and we are convinced that Shropshire farming would benefit from Shropshire joining the Welsh. Of course there’s also the possibility of a GM Free West Midlands or even GM Free England”.

The new campaign follows on from work the Shrewsbury Food Action group did last year on setting up a Shropshire GM Free Register. Over 350 growers, from gardeners to large farmers, have now declared they want their land to be kept clear of GM crops. Although their have been no commercial plantings in Shropshire yet there have been a lot of controversial trials in the North of the County.

Dave Green added:
“Shropshire farming benefits from a reputation for quality and much more emphasis is now being placed on good quality local produce. The organic market is also growing rapidly and Shropshire is ideally placed to satisfy these demands. Going GM Free would protect local farmers and encourage more farmers to either cater for the local quality market or even go fully organic.”

As part of his feed back on the event Dave said:
“We had a good GM Free lunch in the Square today, if slightly cold (the weather that is, the soup was piping hot!) The County Sustainability Forum will be debating the GM Shropshire issue in the New Year, with particular reference to the EU directive allowing for exceptions from GM licenses.

Chris Crean