14 April 2003
Report on Monsanto and risk to investors/Nestle’s closed gates of welcome
"Nestle honours and listens to opinions from all consumers at all times. This includes the opinions from Greenpeace..." - from a Nestle press release about the 10,000 postcards from Thai consumers protesting GMOs in Nestle's productss
[Netsle's] executives refused to come out to meet them. After waiting for an hour outside closed factory gates, the protestors led by Greenpeace had to dump 10,000 postcards of complaints against Nestle through the gates. - from item 2
*Greenpeace to launch report on Monsanto and risk to investors
*NESTLE'S CLOSED GATES OF 'WELCOME' TO GREENPEACE
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Greenpeace to launch report on Monsanto and risk to investors
St. Louis Business Journal Online, USA, Friday April 11, 2003
Greenpeace plans to hold a meeting April 16 to launch a report that looks at Monsanto's corporate strategy of expanding its genetically engineered crop business and the risks it poses to shareholders.
The briefing, to be held in New York, will discuss the report by Innovest, an investment research and advisory firm specializing in analyzing companies' performance on environmental, social, and strategic governance issues, focusing on their impact on competitiveness, profitability, and share price performance.
The report highlights growing concerns about genetically engineered technologies developed by Monsanto and other biotech firms. "While only some of Monsanto's current financial difficulties are related to the rejection of GE food, the company faces an even greater problem of basing its corporate strategy on selling more GE seeds, in light of growing public concerns and market rejection," Greenpeace said in a statement. Greenpeace plans to make the report available at www.greenpeace.org April 16.
Amsterdam-based Greenpeace International is an environmental awareness organization. A Monsanto spokesman was not available for comment. (c) 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.
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Nestle’s closed gates of ‘welcome’ to Greenpeace
Thai Press Reports April 11, 2003
Nestle, the giant Swiss-based food group, on Thursday said that it "welcomes" protestors to its factory at Navanakorn -- but then its executives refused to come out to meet them. After waiting for an hour outside closed factory gates, the protestors led by Greenpeace had to dump 10,000 postcards of complaints against Nestle through the gates. Greenpeace said that on behalf of 10,000 consumers throughout Thailand it was protesting against Nestle's promotion of genetically modified organisms (or GMOs) in Thailand, when it was banned in its own country from selling them. "Nestle does not have a policy to stop the use of GMOs in its products because they claim that Thai consumers are not concerned about GMOs in their food," said Varoonvarn Svangsopakul, a campaigner for Greenpeace. "So here are 10,000 postcards from different provinces signed by people who do not want Nestle's experiment in their food. Nestle should not ignore the voice of consumers." She added that Nestle was doing things in Thailand that it could not do at home. The postcards called on the company to: l "Stop selling genetically modified food to Thai people; l "Stop using babies as guinea pigs; l "Stop treating Thais as second class citizens." Varoonvarn said that Greenpeace had tried to meet with Nestle executives, but were told the assistant director was at the head office, not at the factory. When they called the head office, they were told that all other executives were on holiday. Further calls suggested that the assistant director was at the factory, Greenpeace said, but after an hour of waiting neither he nor any other Nestle executives actually came to meet the complainants, "so we had to dump the postcards at the factory gates. We did not go inside."
In response to inquiries from Business Day, the communications department of Nestle sent its press release but refused to provide any extra information or answer questions. The press release said that Nestle would fully comply with the Thai government GMO labelling law effective next month, which will require all products containing ingredients from GM corn and soya oil be labelled. "Nestle honours and listens to opinions from all consumers at all times. This includes the opinions from Greenpeace Southeast Asia and the anti-GMO network," the release said. It noted that Thailand allows manufacturers to use raw materials from GM corn and soyabean in food production. "Nestle puts top priority on the quality and safety of all its consumer products," it added, pointing out that Nestle employs 4,000 Thais and spends 10 billion baht a year buying from 20,000 local suppliers and exports round the world.