Cymraeg The Agriculture Bill has progressed to the House of Lords where the LWA is taking another shot at including amendments on small farms, local food, agroecology, public health and, of course, trade.
The First Reading of the Bill in the House of Lords will be on June 10th where supportive peers have agreed to introduce the areas for amendments. By July 7th the details of wording and who will be sponsoring which amendments will be worked out. From then until September there will be numerous stages… so we will work through them one by one!
We await further details about how to proceed, but will soon be asking you to raise these issues with your MP again, particularly with regards to the trade amendment on the Bill’s return to the House of Commons. An amendment similar to NC2 will clearly be the central focus of the debate and we will kept you updated about the details as they slowly emerge.
Here are the amendments from LWA that we are proposing to peers. Natalie Bennett will put forward the amendments on small farms and local food for LWA.
And a public health amendment to be promoted by Rosie Boycott for Sustain with the support of the LWA.
We have also heard about a dangerous amendment to be tabled for the House of Lords second reading seeking to confer new ministerial powers to alter the definition of GMO’s used in UK food and farming regulations. The amendment is promoted by the NFU. It is early days, so we do not know whether the amendment will be picked up or not.
The LWA is concerned that the proposed amendment could lead to the removal of vital GM safeguards and are seriously alarmed about the potential impact of its adoption.
This summary of key concerns has been compiled by GM Freeze.
We will keep you informed and be ready to launch a campaign against the amendment should any peers choose to take it up.
