Detailed, referenced, written responses to a wide range of formal consultations concerning issues relating to GM in food and farming. This includes objections to UK GM field trials, submissions to parliamentary inquiries and more. Multi-agency responses are submitted on behalf of GM Freeze and other organisations.
2 Nov 2017
GM Freeze’s response to the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee’s inquiry into Brexit and trade in food.
Our evidence highlights the importance of labelling to protect consumer choice and the potential impact of unlabelled GM imports. We also discuss the fact that the UK’s devolved nations have all taken a different political position on GM to that of the Westminster government.
16 Mar 2017
GM Freeze and thirty-two other organisations came together to ask Defra not to allow The Sainsbury Laboratory to release GM potatoes in an open-air trial.
14 Dec 2016
GM Freeze and thirty other organisations came together to ask Defra not to allow Rothamsted Research to release GM wheat in an open-air trial.
16 May 2016
GM Freeze submitted written evidence to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s inquiry into Science Communication.
Our evidence explains why we consider that the framing of regulatory consultations, media coverage and wider debate around the use GM in food and farming is too narrow. Social and ethical considerations are excluded from the regulatory process and side-lined in the media. Individuals who are not able to express themselves with scientific accuracy are denied a voice and language is used in ways that can easily mislead or confuse.
21 Mar 2016
GM Freeze and twenty-one other organisations came together to ask Defra not to allow the Sainsbury’s Laboratory to release GM blight-resistant potatoes in an open-air trial.
21 Mar 2016
GM Freeze and twenty other organisations came together to ask Defra not to allow Rothamsted Research to release GM camelina in a new trial.
3 Feb 2016
GM Freeze responded to a Nuffield Council on Bioethics call for evidence on Genome Editing: http://nuffieldbioethics.org/project/genome-editing/open-call-for-evidence/
Genome editing shares many of the same risks as GM, while also presenting new problems. There is much that can go wrong and it is vital that new techniques are subject to proper regulation, traceability and end-product labelling.
People have a wide range of ethical concerns about genetic engineering and it is vital that these are properly considered. Individuals without the advantage of a technically accurate vocabulary must be heard and understood.
More on this issue under Why a Freeze / New GM techniques in the menu above (sorry, there’s a glitch on links in this part of the website)
27 Oct 2015
The Food Standards Agency invited stakeholder views on the European Commission’s proposal to allow Member States to restrict or ban the use of authorised GM food and feed products. This is the response that GM Freeze submitted.
23 Dec 2014
In November 2014, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published and invited comments on its draft Guidance for Renewal Applications of Genetically Modified Food and Feed authorised under Regulation (EC) No. 1829/2003. GM Freeze responded via forms on the EFSA website, on behalf of GM Freeze, EcoNexus European Network of Scientists for Social and Environmental Responsiblity (ENSSER), Friends of the Earth Europe and the Soil Association.
24 Jul 2014
In April 2013 GM Freeze submitted written evidence to the Science and Technology Committee’s Inquiry “”GM Foods and the Application of the Precautionary Principle in Europe””. A copy of that submission can be downloaded here, along with additional evidence submitted in response to questions posed to GM Freeze Director Liz O’Neill during an oral evidence session on 15 October, 2014. All other submissions are available to download at the Committee’s website via
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