1. Take action: Tell supermarkets "responsible" soy label is misleading
2. Backgrounder on why the RTRS will not produce responsible soy
---
---
1. Take action: Tell supermarkets "responsible" soy label is misleading
Over 12,000 signed petition to 60 companies
15 March 2011
http://www.corporateeurope.org/agribusiness/content/2011/03/petition-challenges-green-soy-label

Tell supermarkets not to mislead their consumers by committing "label fraud" - sign the petition here and help discredit the new label for "responsible" soy, due to be launched by the Round Table on Responsible Soy this spring. There are separate actions for Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain.

The petition can be found at the following links:

English: http://www.toxicsoy.org/toxicsoy/Action/action.html

German: http://www.regenwald.org/mailalert/681/verantwortungsbewusste-soja-ein-fall-von-verbrauchertauschung

French: http://www.sauvonslaforet.org/mailalert/682/soja-responsable-duperie-pour-les-consommateurs%C2%A0%C2%A0

Spanish: http://www.salvalaselva.org/mailalert/678/soja-responsable-confundiendo-a-los-consumidores

Dutch: http://www.gifsoja.nl/Gifsoja/Actie/actie.html

More information on the RTRS "responsible" soy claim:
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12948
---
---
2. Backgrounder on why the RTRS will not produce responsible soy
Briefing, "Certified Responsible? Critical assessment of the Round Table on Responsible Soy"

GM Watch, Friends of the Earth and Corporate Europe Observatory have published a background document spelling out why the RTRS criteria will not deliver a responsible product. For example, it shows how 'responsible' soy could be produced on recently deforested lands. RTRS-members Nidera, Pioneer and Monsanto have all been found guilty of keeping workers in slave-like working conditions on their hybrid maize seed fields. But these same companies will promise to adhere to adequate labour standards for 'responsible' soy. Nor do the criteria address in any substantial way the issue of pesticide spraying and consequent health problems for the local population, and the development of Roundup-resistant weeds.

Other criticism of the RTRS

The German League for Nature and Environment DNR (Deutscher Naturschutzring, comprising some 80 organisations) wrote to WWF saying:

"Deutscher Naturschutzring cannot accept that WWF International protects a failed system of agriculture and secures the profits of companies like Monsanto and BP. [...] if WWF International blesses GM soya as 'sustainable' or 'responsible' it protects narrow business interests and not people and the environment. [...] The reputation of WWF as an environmental organisation will be affected and perhaps be ruined on the long run."

Nine Belgian NGOs, active in the North-South agriculture and environmental fields, wrote to Dutch NGOs that had been promoting RTRS soy to Dutch retailers. They said:

"In our opinion the RTRS-criteria do not bring us 'responsible' soy, but rather a legitimation of an unsustainable production system, namely the large scale cultivation of herbicide-resistant crops. This will mislead critical consumers and delays other approaches such as decreasing factory farming and shifting to locally produced feed."