There are few things more essential to our every day lives than food. More and more people are asking themselves whether they can trust the food they eat. We're told that the chemicals, growth hormones and antibiotics the food industry adds to our food are a sign of progress. We're told that those of us who are concerned about genetically modified (GM) foods are anti-progress.

The Green Party believes Real Progress means real food; food we can trust. We want a GM-free Britain. In the last decade the amount of organic food produced in Europe has gone up by five times, but British farmers lag far behind - even though we're one of the biggest markets for organic produce. Less than half of the organic food we eat is home-grown. Real Progress means encouraging Britain's food producers to meet the demand for natural food in this country. That could mean 40,000 extra jobs for our rural and farming communities.

Greens believe that people care as we do about the treatment of animals. Farm animals have a right not to suffer, and our stand against intensive factory production lines promotes respect and compassion in farming.

On the London Assembly, Green Party Assembly Member Darren Johnson has successfully promoted community allotments, and secured an anti-GM clause for the Mayor's Biodiversity Strategy.

Green Party Euro-MP Dr Caroline Lucas has been an outspoken critic of the Common Agricultural Policy and has campaigned for an organic, local and safe agricultural system. She has written reports proposing ways of reducing supermarket power, and has lobbied the UK government to use EU money to help farmers promote local food initiatives.

British Greens in the European Parliament played a key role in making sure that all food with any GM links is properly labelled - so you can choose whether or not to buy it. Caroline Lucas won support from many farmers for highlighting the absurd trade where British food products are flown half way round the world to countries which sell exactly the same type of products back to us.

Sourced from http://www.greenparty.org.uk/issues/14