http://www.bangmfood.org/take-action/23-take-action/11-supermarkets-campaign
NOTE: Be interesting to know exactly who the "industry sources" for this story actually are as it follows on so neatly from the sudden flurry of biotech industry propaganda in the UK media last week – see 'Perfect storm of media spin'
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11442:pefect-storm-of-media-spin
EXTRACTS: Last night Tesco denied it was involved in talks to encourage the acceptance of GM foods. (article below)
A spokesman for the British Retail Consortium, which represents supermarkets, said: "Retailers are not stocking GM products and there are no plans to change that." (Supermarkets pave way for introduction of GM food to UK, Daily Telegraph, 1 September 2009)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/geneticmodification/6120112/Supermarkets-pave-way-for-introduction-of-GM-food-to-UK.html
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Supermarkets in 'secret talks to introduce GM foods to the shelves'
Sean Poulter
Daily Mail, 1 September 2009
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1210369/Supermarkets-secret-talks-introduce-GM-foods-shelves.html#ixzz0PqPEK2Lu
The big supermarkets have held secret talks to pave the way for the introduction of controversial GM crops on to their shelves, industry sources said last night.
The stores banned GM ingredients more than ten years ago in response to public anxiety about their impact on human health and the environment.
But a source indicated that all the major supermarkets were involved in the discussions except Waitrose.
Supermarkets are in discussions to bring back GM after a wide-ranging campaign by multinationals to suggest GM crops could solve Third World hunger
Multi-national giants have been involved in a wide-ranging campaign over the last year to suggest GM crops could be the solution to Third World hunger.
That notion was rejected by a UN study last year.
But the Government has ordered the Food Standards Agency to carry out a year-long spin campaign to win support for GM. Earlier this year Sir Terry Leahy, boss of Tesco, Britain's biggest supermarket, said supermarkets may have made the decision to reject GM products too hastily.
'It may have been a failure of us all to stand by the science,' he said.
'Maybe there is an opportunity to discuss again these issues and a growing appreciation by people that GM could play a vital role in feeding the world's growing population.'
The Government recently appointed former Labour MP and food minister Lord Jeff Rooker, an advocate of GM crops and food, as FSA chairman.
The National Farmers' Union has also put pressure on stores and the Government to allow commercial planting of GM crops.
Former Unilever chief scientist professor Peter Lillford, chair of the Royal Society of Chemistry's food steering group, predicted that supermarkets would be forced into a Uturn on GM in an interview with Food Manufacture earlier this year.
'The higher yields obtained by the genetic modification of crops are believed to have saved millions of square miles of wildlife habitat from conversion to agricultural use,' he said.[!!!]
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said recently: 'If GM can make a contribution, then we have a choice as a society and as a world about whether to make use of that technology – and an increasing number of countries are growing GM products.'
But Emma Hockridge, a campaigner for the Soil Association, said: 'Proponents of GM technology have been claiming to be on the brink of developing a range of benefits for years, but these have not delivered. The claims of increased yields have been widely discredited. Once these GM crops are released into the environment, they will spread, and transfer GM traits to related native plants. Once released, they can never be recalled.'
Friends of the Earth's senior food campaigner, Clare Oxborrow, said the Government and big business appeared to be trying to brainwash the public into accepting 'Frankenstein Food'.
She said: 'During the 2002 GM debate the public delivered a resounding "no" to GM crops and foods. Ministers already know what the public think about GM but they don't like the answer.
'Research assessing the impact of growing GM crops in Britain found they were more damaging to farmland wildlife than traditional farming.'
Last night Tesco denied it was involved in talks to encourage the acceptance of GM foods. A spokesman said: 'Our position is we are led by customers and customers don't appear to want them at the moment.'
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