Press releases
News releases and comments from GM Freeze are listed below.
For more information, images and interviews, please contact Leonie Nimmo on 0845 217 8992 or leonie[at]gmfreeze.org
Immediate release (15 Nov 2023)
GM Freeze has today sent an open letter of complaint to the Food Standards Agency regarding the timing of its consultation on the post-Brexit regulation of ‘precision bred’ organisms (PBOs), claiming it will discriminate against consumer-focussed businesses. The consultation runs …
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Comment (25 Jul 2023)
Commenting on the suggestion, based on Farming Minister Mark Spencer’s evidence to an Environmental Audit Committee hearing, that genetically engineering cattle is a better way to reduce methane emissions than encouraging a reduction in meat consumption, GM Freeze Director Liz …
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Comment (25 May 2022)
Commenting on the the UK Government’s Genetic Technology Bill – and the news that Environment Minister George Eustice does not believe that genetically modified organisms created with newer GM techniques should be declared on food labels, GM Freeze Director Liz …
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Comment (23 May 2022)
Commenting on news that the John Innes Centre is growing GM tomatoes under new rules that allow experimental GMOs to be released without proper scrutiny, GM Freeze Director Liz O’Neill said: The John Innes Centre has chosen to release experimental …
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Comment (20 May 2022)
Commenting on an article in The I, in which Environment Secretary George Eustice boasts that the Genetic Technology Bill will be passed into law this year and will bring unlabelled GMOs to supermarket shelves across the UK by 2023, GM …
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Comment (10 May 2022)
Responding to plans for a Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill, announced in today’s Queen’s Speech and detailed on page 61 of the Lobby Pack briefing notes, Liz O’Neill, Director of umbrella group GM Freeze said: All genetic technologies can – …
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Comment (29 Sep 2021)
Responding to the announcement that Environment Secretary George Eustice intends to push ahead with plans to remove new GM techniques (often referred to as gene editing) from the scope of GMO regulations, Liz O’Neill, Director of umbrella group GM Freeze …
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Comment (27 Aug 2021)
Commenting on news that the Government has given the go-ahead to an open field trial of GM “low acrylamide” wheat at Rothamsted Research, GM Freeze Director Liz O’Neill said: It’s hard to understand the thinking that leads GM developers to …
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Comment (7 Jan 2021)
Responding to Environment Minister George Eustice’s speech launching a Defra consultation on plans to de-regulate gene editing, GM Freeze Director Liz O’Neill said: People have many concerns about the use of genetic engineering in food and farming so public engagement …
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Comment (15 Sep 2020)
Commenting on news that scientists from Edinburgh and the United States are using new GMO to develop an alternative to highly successful artificial insemination programmes, GM Freeze Director Liz O’Neill said: This is yet another “proof of concept” study being …
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Immediate release (2 Jul 2020)
Three of the UK’s largest GM campaigns – GM Freeze, Beyond GM and GMWatch – have joined together to oppose an amendment to the Agriculture Bill that would give the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs …
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Comment (28 May 2020)
It has come to light that a group of MPs, backed by industry lobby groups, plans to table an amendment to the Agriculture Bill paving the way for ministers to alter the definition of a GMO in UK law. The …
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Comment (26 Jul 2019)
Commenting on Boris Johnson’s view that we need to be “liberated” from GM regulations, GM Freeze Director Liz O’Neill said: If we need to be liberated from anything, it’s the idea that technology can provide quick fixes for all of …
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Immediate release (16 Apr 2019)
Thirty-one organisations including some of the UK’s biggest environmental organisations, farmers, scientists, seed distributors and retailers lodged a formal objection today to The Sainsbury Laboratory’s plans for a new open-air field trial of GM potatoes on farms in Suffolk and …
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Immediate release (21 Mar 2019)
Thirty-five organisations including some of the UK’s biggest environmental organisations, farmers, scientists, seed distributors and retailers yesterday lodged a formal objection to plans for a new open-air field trial of GM camelina plants at Rothamsted Research’s farms in Hertfordshire and …
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Immediate release (26 Feb 2019)
Thirty-three organisations including farmers, researchers, seed distributors, retailers and environmentalists today lodged formal objections to proposed open-air field trials of biofortified GM wheat and genome edited brassica in Norfolk. Disputing health claims made by researchers at the John Innes Centre …
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Immediate release (2 Oct 2018)
A new petition, aiming to protect consumers’ right to make an informed choice about their food choices, was launched online this week. Presented jointly by campaign groups GM Freeze and Beyond GM , the Don’t Hide What’s Inside petition calls …
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Immediate release (25 Jul 2018)
GM Freeze and GeneWatch UK have today written to Environment Secretary Michael Gove, to demand the immediate halt of an unlawful trial of gene edited plants at Rothamsted Research (1). The trial of genetically modified (GM) Camelina sativa, includes some …
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Comment (25 Jul 2018)
UK umbrella campaign GM Freeze today welcomed a European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision to ensure proper regulation of controversial new genetic engineering techniques. Supporting the position taken by environmental campaigners, the judgement states that organisms obtained by mutagenesis are …
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Comment (22 May 2018)
DEFRA has given Rothamsted Research consent to plant a new open air field trial of GM camelina plants, including two lines produced using new CRISPR genome editing techniques. The trial application did not include a risk assessment for the CRISPR plants …
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