Challenge to Charles
Cornwall is hoping to enlist the help of Prince Charles in marketing itself as a GM-free zone.
North Cornwall MP Paul Tyler has written to the Prince setting out a plan to link the County's Objective 1 status to the promotion of high-quality food. He wants to see the County marketed as being free of all GM crops and food products.
'Could we not, under your leadership, seek to make the whole of Cornwall a GM Free Zone, until all your 10 questions have been satisfactorily answered?' he asks, referring to the recent high-profile entry by the Prince into the political debate on the safety of GM foods. 'The very act of seeking this status would make a valid statement about Cornwall and its distinct character,' he said. 'Now that even the supermarkets believe they can guarantee GM-free foods products, we should have a reasonable chance of success.
'Obviously, the Duchy would have a special role to play, co-operating with other partners in Cornwall, but I really do believe that it would be your own personal commitment to this concept, within the context of Objective One, which would fire people's imagination.'
According to the Friends of the Earth there are no test sites currently operating in Cornwall.