EXTRACT: The poll showed 63 per cent of people want supermarkets to supply products only from GM-free animals. The figures come as Asda has said it can no longer guarantee the feed given to its poultry is GM-free.

URGENT - TAKE ACTION: Tell Asda to stay GM free
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/biodiversity/press_for_change/asda_rolls_back_on_gm_23592.html
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We want GM-free guarantee on food, say two in three families
Sean Poulter
Daily Mail, 15th June 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1286621/GM-free-guarantee-food-demanded-families.html

Two in three families want their food guaranteed to be non-GM, a survey revealed today.

The figures show that a propaganda campaign led by the food industry and the previous government has failed to win over a sceptical public.

The study, by consumer research group GfK NOP, found that 72 per cent of those polled were prepared to pay extra for non-genetically-modified food.
Children eating

Food for the family: Two thirds of consumers want their meat and dairy products from animals guaranteed to have had a GM-free diet. (Posed by models)

And 66 per cent - two thirds - said they wanted to buy meat and dairy products from animals guaranteed to have had a GM-free diet, while 89 per cent want such products to be clearly labelled. There is currently no such requirement.

Fewer than 40 per cent of those surveyed were aware that GM is creeping on to their plates via imported animal feed.
 
Critics accuse supermarkets and food manufacturers of supporting GM food by the back door. Most - except Marks & Spencer and organic producers - allow animals raised for meat and milk to be fed on GM crops such as soya. The poll showed 63 per cent of people want supermarkets to supply products only from GM-free animals.

The figures come as Asda has said it can no longer guarantee the feed given to its poultry is GM-free.

Pete Riley, of pressure group GM Freeze, said: 'Despite rhetoric from industry and government about the possible benefits of GM crops the British public appears to remain very sceptical. These results send a very clear message that any weakening of policies on the import and use of GM feed will not be welcomed by the public.

'They are demanding that there should be a clear non-GM choice.'

Critics are also concerned about a lack of independent scientific research into the health effects of so-called Frankenstein Foods.

There is also mounting evidence that GM crops and their associated farming practices harm the environment. The GM giant Monsanto admits its controversial crops have helped trigger an massive rise of superweeds on farmland across the U.S. The crops include Roundup-Ready cotton, soya beans and maize, genetically modified to withstand glyphosate weedkiller.

Millions of acres of U.S. countryside are being overrun with weeds that have a resistance to powerful chemicals that would have been used in the past to kill them off.

The biggest concern is pigweed, which grows at a rate of more than one inch a day smothers food crops.