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Campaign for Keeping UK supermarkets GM-Free

Friday, August 22, 2008
Posted in Genetic Engineering | Tagged Genetic Engineering

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Now that the GM-foods issue in the UK is again in the spotlight, please join us in writing to the major supermarkets to urge them to continue to keep their own-brand products GM-Free (pressure from the Government and the biotech industry is making the supermarkets think seriously about banding together to introduce a united pro-GM front).

Action

Enclosed is a current list of supermarkets to contact, plus a useful document on ‘the evidence of health risk from GM foods’ that our local campaign group* recently put together, which outlines the real health and environmental risks of GM food and crops. (Word versions of these docs are available from me on request)

* (Our group was the first in the UK to act against GM-foods in May 1996 by writing to all the major supermarkets to alert them to the potential health and environmental risks of GMOs - which resulted in Iceland Stores going GM-free soon after)….

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/19990323164839.html

Thanks and best wishes,

Ron Baxter

GM-Free foods campaign,

Sklemersdale

Lancs.

—–

GM-foods - ACTION

Please write to the following supermarkets (in your own words) and urge them to maintain their current policy of keeping their own-brand food products GM-free - as demanded by the vast majority of UK consumers over the past eleven years. You may wish to request a response in writing.

Supermarkets contact addresses

The Chairman

Asda Stores

ASDA House

South Bank

Great Wilson Street

Leeds

LS11 5AD

 

The Chairman

Tesco Stores

Tesco House

Delamare Rd

Cheshunt

Hertfordshire

EN8 9SL

 

Peter Marks

Chief Executive

The Co-operative Group

New Century House

Manchester

M60 4ES

 

The Chief Executive

Iceland Foods Limited

Second Avenue

Deeside Industrial Park

Deeside

Flintshire

CH5 2NW

 

The Chairman

Marks & Spencer

Chester Business Park

Wrexham Road

Chester

CH4 9GA

 

The Chairman

Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc

Hilmore House

Gain Lane

Bradford

BD3 7DL

 

The Chairman

Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd

33 Holborn

London

EC1N 2HT

 

The Chairman

Edwin Booth

Booths Supermarkets

Longridge Road

Ribbleton

Preston

PR2 5BX

 

Waitrose Limited

Doncastle Road

Bracknell

Berkshire

RG12 8YA

 

Budgens Stores Limited

Musgrave House

Moorhall Road

Harefield,

UB9 6PE

 

Aldi Stores

Holly Lane

Atherstone

Warwickshire

CV9 2SQ

 

–

Scientific Evidence of Risk from GM crops - Fact sheet

 

HEALTH

There is now a worrying body of published, peer-reviewed scientific evidence from controlled animal studies carried out in many countries and by different parties (government, academic, independent and company studies) that demonstrates that GMOs cause a wide range of serious unexpected physiological changes with as yet unknown health impacts. The studies are summarised in a Soil Association report (ref 1).

Effects found in animals included stunted growth, smaller organs, gut lesions, cellular changes in the liver, pancreas and testes, toxic effects to the liver and kidney systems and allergic reactions (1)

 Health references:

(1) The Soil Association reports which summarises the various studies is available at:        http://www.soilassociation.org/gm

(Scroll half-way down the web-page to the “links” section and click on….

“Report - GM crops - the health effects [PDF, 169 KB]”

 

GM NOT HELPING TO FEED THE WORLD

(2) The fact that GM does not increase crop yields was recognized in a recent report from the United Nations International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). Authored by 400 scientists and backed by 60 governments, the report found no conclusive evidence that GM crops increase yields.

In fact, the scientists were so unconvinced about the role of GM crops in meeting future food needs that the pro-GM US Government refused to endorse the report, and the biotechnology industry pulled out of the process, despite having provided substantial funding at the outset.

(IAASTD report, published 15 April 2008, London)

No increased yields have been recorded for GM herbicide tolerant soybeans, maize and cotton, even by analysts who are highly in favour of the technology Brookes, G & Barfoot, P (2005) GM crops - the global economic and environmental impact - the first nine years. AgBioForum 8:187-196.

GM seeds are patented, so seed saving for the following year is forbidden. Farmers in the developing world depend on farmer-saved seed and not being able to continue this traditional practice threatens their food security. Many farmers who are alleged to have saved patented

GM seeds have been sued. Even farmers experiencing accidental contamination of their crops have been sued.

ENVIRONMENT

GM crops have led to increased use of highly potent broad spectrum herbicides and pesticides despite claims from biotech companies that their crops reduce the use of such chemicals.(3,4) Weeds and pests more resistant to herbicides (4) and pesticides (5) have appeared.

Rapid expansion of GM soya cultivation in Argentina, has been accompanied by extensive use of mixtures of powerful herbicides to deal with resistant weeds with consequent animal and human health problems, soil erosion and a reduction in the number of family farms.(6)

 

(3) Increased herbicide use

 The emergence of herbicide resistance in weeds has threatened the long-term weed control effectiveness of the technology. Owen, MDK, & Zelaya, IA. (2005) Herbicide-resistant crops and weed resistance to herbicides.    Pest Management Science 61:301-311.

 The planting of 550 million acres of GM maize, soya and cotton in the US since 1996 has increased the amount of pesticide used by about 22.5 million kg, according to a study published in 2003 by the Northwest Science and Environmental Policy Centre. Genetically Engineered Crops Now Increasing Pesticide Use in the United States. Press Release from the Northwest Science and Environmental Policy Centre (US). 25 November 2003. 

http://www.biotechinfo.net/highlights.html#technical_papers

Reasons for this are that farmers have had to spray incrementally more herbicides on GM crops in order to keep up with shifts in weeds towards tougher-to-control species, coupled with the emergence of genetic resistance in certain weed populations.

http://www.biotech-info.net/technicalpaper6.html

 

(4) A survey showed that since the introduction of glyphosate (Roundup) resistant GM crops, numerous new resistant weed species have evolved that would need more potent herbicide mixtures to control. Nandula VK et al. GLYPHOSATE-RESISTANT WEEDS: CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE OUTLOOK. Outlooks on Pest Management - August 2005 183-187.

references sourced from :

http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/2007/FoEE_biotech_MTR_midlifecrisis_March07.pdf

 (5) Increased pesticide use

A survey by the Maharashtra Government, India, in 2003, showed that initial economic benefits, in terms of savings in insecticide use, have shown to dissolve as pests’ tolerance to the insecticide increased and additional insecticide-use was required.  

Chinese farmers have had the same experience.

Performance of Bt. Cotton Cultivation in Maharashtra. Report of State Department of Agriculture, 2003. http://www.envfor.nic.in/divisions/csurv/btcotton/srmh.htm.

Wang S., Just DR & Pinstrup-Andersen P (2006) Tarnishing Silver bullets: Bt technology adoption, bounded rationality and the outbreak of secondary pest infestations in China.

Paper presented at the American Agricultural Economics Association Meeting, Long Beach CA, July 22-26, 2006. http://www.grain.org/research_files/SWang_tarnished.pdf

 

The biotech industry has also claimed reduction in insecticide usage, up to 15%, for bollworm resistant GM cotton. However, farmers have had to modify their pest management since other pests, previously controlled by broad-spectrum insecticide programmes used on conventional cotton, have become more problematic in GM cotton. Additionally, the bollworm itself is slowly developing resistance to the insecticide, causing additional applications of the pesticide to become necessary.

Policy Department Structural and Cohesion Policies of the European Parliament, (2006).

Biotechnology in the EU Agriculture: Perspectives and Challenges, IP/B/AGRI/IC/2006_057.

Only one GM crop is grown in the European Union, Monsanto’s Bt maize (MON810), which is genetically modified to produce a “built-in” insecticide. France has  announced a ban on the maize for health and environmental reasons.references sourced from :

http://www.foeeurope.org/publications/2007/FoEE_biotech_MTR_midlifecrisis_March07.pdf

 

(6) Evidence of environmental degradation in Argentina Argentina’s bitter harvest, New Scientist, 17 April 2004 see http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3280

The article says  “…. as others, including the UK, seem increasingly prepared to authorise the commercial growing of GM crops, they may be well advised to look to Argentina to see how it can go wrong.”