Vital GM safeguards could be quietly dropped after Brexit

GM Freeze, the UK’s umbrella campaign on GM in food and farming, today launched twin campaigns aiming to protect key safeguards as the UK prepares to leave the European Union (EU).

Focused on issues around growing and importing GM crops, Safeguard our Farms calls for rigorous regulation to protect people, animals and the environment as well as effective measures to prevent contamination. Meanwhile, Don’t Hide What’s Inside aims to protect our right to decide whether or not to buy and eat GM through compulsory GM food labelling.

Almost all the UK’s food and farming legislation currently comes from Europe, including rules that require case by case environmental risk assessments and labelling of GMOs in our food. It was an EU Directive that allowed Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to restrict the cultivation of GMOs in 2015, despite the Westminster Government’s long-standing support for the use of GM in agriculture.

GM Freeze director Liz O’Neill said, “The UK’s departure from the EU could result in enormous changes to the way we govern food and farming. Brexit brings opportunities for positive change but with so many issues competing for attention it would be easy for vital GM safeguards to be quietly dropped. The Safeguard our Farms and Don’t Hide What’s Inside campaigns are designed to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

Find out more at www.gmfreeze.org/safeguard and www.gmfreeze.org/donthide.