GM Food News

What will be the end of Monsanto? Could it be lawsuits, new legislation, or perhaps even a tiny insect that is less than 0.10 mm in length? A new report reveals that rootworms may ultimately be what ends Monsanto’s crops, despite the biotech giant’s rampant success within the United States legislative system. Amazingly, western corn rootworms have virtually no problem gobbling up Monsanto’s modified maize crop, as they have developed a serious resistance to the very crops designed to kill them. So much so that these little critters are outpacing Monsanto’s top scientists.

To make matters worse for the company, the resistant rootworms are maturing earlier than expected this year. And with the enhanced growth has come enhanced birth rates, with the bug’s larvae hatching the earliest in decades. Monsanto, of course, is absolutely defenseless against the resistant rootworms which have adapted to their biopesticide known as Bt. At least 8 populations of insects have developed resistance, with 2 populations resistant to Bt sprays and at least 6 species resistant to Bt crops as a whole. The answer? Use even more intelligence-crushing pesticides. It is for this reason that the EPA has warned in the past that Monsanto’s crops will soon be ravaged by the insects. In their report on the subject, the EPA states: “Monsanto’s program for monitoring suspected cases of resistance is ‘inadequate’”.The statements have been reinforced by another group of concerned scientists.

 A body of 22 academic corn experts voiced serious concerns over GMO crop failures back in March, warning that a collapse of the GMO corn industry may soon follow — a particularly mighty prediction when considering that 94 percent of the US supply is currently of the genetically modified variety. It is also important to consider that much of the corn is not used for food, but for biodiesel purposes. Will nature adapt to Monsanto’s genetically modified creations and lead to their downfall in the end? Time and time again researchers and agricultural professionals have been calling upon Monsanto and the United States government to return to traditional and sustainable farming practices — even citing the fact that Monsanto’s GMOs produce even less yield. Instead, the modified crops have overtaken much of the food supply. Now, in the face of collapse, the only answer provided by Monsanto is to drench crops in even more pesticides and modify their genetic coding to an even greater degree.

Sheffield’s Local & European Elections

During the recent local and European elections, Sheffield FoE contacted all political parties to ascertain their views regarding three key green pledges:

1) A GM free Sheffield
2) Support for better recycling facilities
3) Better public transport, walking and cycling routes.

The number of candidates signing our pledges, by party were:
Green Party (23)
Conservative (5)
Labour (3)
Independent (2)
Lib Dems (1)

Steve Goodacre sent a letter to the Sheffield Telegraph offering the rest of the Lib Dems another opportunity to tell us where they stand on these three key issues.

Sheffield Friends of the Earth want to work with all political parties to promote policies that protect our environment. We support all local Councillors who are prepared to make a real commitment to green policies

GM Contamination and Liability Bill

Each year, the names of a few lucky MPs are pulled out of a hat and the winners are allowed to put a Bill of their choice before Parliament. And there's a good chance it could become law!

Contamination and Liability Bill.
This Bill will ensure that if we get to the situation where the Government agrees to the commercial planting of GM, there will be strict safety laws in place to protect our environment and stipulate where responsibility will lie. The Bill would:

Help keep track of GM crops

• by ensuring appropriate notification procedures are in place to advise of exactly where they are planted.
• Help prevent contamination
• by specifying minimum separation distances between GM and organic/conventional crops.
• Say who is liable
• by establishing a strict code for instances where GMOs contaminate organic or conventional crops.

Since 1997, eight Friends of the Earth Bills have led to new legislation - so there's a good chance of this Bill succeeding too.

But to make this Bill a reality, we need your help. Please visit the national FoE web site (www.foe.co.uk) for details on how you can send a letter to the chosen MPs.

Food Campaigns - January 2004

The decision was made by Sheffield City Council on 29th July to reject the proposed Asda store on Middlewood Road.  The decision may now go to appeal.

It also appears that the Handsworth branch of Asda are wanting to build another road leading into their car park. Local residents have also seen delivery lorries crash into their property and destroy their gardens. At the moment Asda don’t seem very concerned about rectifying the problems.

Rebecca has contacted Sheffield City Council about their policy regarding GM foods. Some members welcomed cyclists travelling through Sheffield to the GM Rally in London

Green Cross Code

There are many environmental concerns facing Sheffield ranging from flooding, food scares, problems with transport and waste incineration, not to mention the recent foot and mouth epidemic which caused the closure of much of the Peak District leaving many people in financial crisis. As a result Sheffield Friends of the Earth felt that the environment should be a key issue locally in the general election. We therefore decided to launch the Green X Code campaign in Sheffield to allow the public to gain a more informed vote. We felt that the residents of Sheffield had the right to know whether each of their prospective parliamentary candidates from now on referred to as PPCs) were going to address Friends of the Earth’s five green targets(1). At the same time we hoped that the PPCs would realise the public were concerned about their environment and wanted the problems to be addressed. We therefore held a public meeting to allow discussions of public concerns and to see what exactly the prospective candidates had to say for themselves.

First a street stall was held in Sheffield city centre where people were invited to send the Green X Code postcards to the PPCs in their constituencies with all the information they needed provided. It also gave us the opportunity to invite them to the public meeting.

Sheffield’s PPCs were invited to show their green credentials at a public meeting that was held on Friday 30th March 2001. It showed exactly how much our local politicians really care about the environment, and about 30 of the public came along to voice their concerns, The public meeting focussed on two main constituencies, Sheffield Hallam and Sheffield Central, and all of the PPCs from the main parties were invited. However, not all of them managed to make it. The Hallam candidates were represented by Richard Allen (Lib Dems) and John Hartman (Cons), Gill Furniss (Lab) failed to turn up. From Central Noelle Brelsford (Cons) Bernard Little (Green) and Nick Riley (Socialist Alliance) attended. Richard Caborne (Lab) and Ali Qadar (Lib Dem) were too busy to attend. However, we did receive a post code from Ali Qadar with a cross against each of the five targets.

At the meeting Bernard Little and Nick Riley showed their support for all targets. Richard Allen supported the food, climate change and business targets fully. He would only accept the waste and transport targets with some qualifications as he felt that he could only cross those targets that could realistically be met. Both the Conservatives and Labour candidates refused to put a cross against any targets as they thought it an inappropriate way to show their support of environmental targets.

The issues discussed at the meeting ranged from the local, for instance cleaning up Sheffield parks and the incinerator to how the PPCs thought the global issues should be tackled, for instance reducing CO2 emissions, the problems with George Bush and the Kyoto protocol, GATS and food safety.

This provided a very interesting meeting and the outcome was positive. The PPCs could see that the Sheffield public were very concerned to have a safer and healthier environment for themselves and future generations and hopefully as a result pushed the environment to the top of their political agenda. However, although people gained more information on which to base their vote in June, the public were still a little worried about how much trust they had in each candidate to actually act on what had been discussed during the meeting. It was clear which candidates were more concerned about the environment and perhaps the most interesting point was no Labour representation at all at the public meeting.

(1) All PPCs were invited to sign up to five green pledges. The Green X Code targets are:

Waste: Provide every household with quality doorstop recycling ensuring no new incinerators are needed and half our waste is recycled by 2010.

Transport: Treble investment in buses and traffic calming by 2005 so that everyone has access to regular public transport and can live in a safe street.

Food: Make biotech companies responsible for any harm caused by genetically modified crops and food by introducing strict liability legislation.

Climate Change: Protect the world’s climate by cutting C02 emissions by 20% and generating 20% of electicity from renewable sources by 2010.

Business: Make business accountable to society by requiring directors to report on, and take into account their social and environmental impacts.

Gene Beast

In April of this year Sheffield Friends of the Earth was planning to take the Gene Beast (see picture) to several Tesco stores in Sheffield to highlight the fact that their own brand products contained GM ingredients. We had the idea of travelling to one store on their park and ride bus painted with the Tesco logo. However, at short notice, Tesco announced that they would be removing GM ingredients from their products (good news!) but this left us with the Gene Beast costume and no one to target (bad news!). Rather than doing nothing we decide to walk around Sheffield on the start of Environment week to raise awareness of GM issues and to hand out leaflets.

Because the Gene Beast was so ugly many members of the public stopped to look it which allow us to get the message across to them. From the reaction on the streets it would seem that the majority of the public are against this method of food production.

Food Campaigns

Gene Feast
On the 1st August the Vegetarian Society of the UK, which licences over 2000 products, decided that it would no longer endorse Batchelors Beanfeast or any other food that contains genetically engineered ingredients. Unilever,  the owners of Batchelors are now faced with removing the Vegetarian Society logo or removing the genetically engineered content. No prises for guessing which we  would like to see removed.

Write to       
Helen Oates
Van Den Bergh Foods
Brooke House
Manor Royal
Crawley
West Sussex
RH10 2RQ
   
Genetic Foods Are Safe! Why Don’t MPs Eat it?
Good enough for voters but not for MPs. The UK’s politicians have been avoiding genetically engineered foods since February when caterers changed their policy. We are writing to MPs about this issue, but why not write a letter to them yourself.

Your MP
House of Commons
Westminster
London
 SW1A 0AA

Gene Beast Monster
The shopping bag rustles….groans can be heard….. The bag bursts open and out pops the Genebeast! This is the latest prop available for local groups to highlight the threats of genetically modified foods, and to increase the pressure on supermarkets to abandon genetically modified foods.

As a local group, we can bring the Genebeast to Sheffield for a day of action. If you would like to help with the planning or can spare a couple of hours on the day phone a co-ordinator. We also need discuss some possible dates.

What have we done - April 1999

Since the last newsletter Sheffield Friends of the Earth have carried out the following campaigning work:

• Held general and transport meetings. Attended the regional meeting in York.
• Taken part in the National No Shop day stunt on Fargate and gained media coverage due to our press release.
• Written to 20 national MPs urging them to adopt the Recycled Content of  Newsprint Bill. 
• Sent more letters to supermarkets, Sheffield City Council, and food companies about genetically modified foods. 
• The transport group attended more cycle forum and pedestrian forum meetings.
• The transport group chaired the Local Transport Day meeting. 
• We sent feedback to SYPTE regarding their web site and how to improve it.
• Decided that we would like to help national FoE hold a transport conference in Sheffield to support the Road Traffic Reduction Bill.
• Signed up to use the gene beast costume in Sheffield.
• Produced another newsletter.
• Held a Christmas Social event.

Food Labelling

Dozens of food companies are breaking the law by selling food containing genetically modified ingredients without stating the fact on the label.

Worcestershire Trading Standards Services says that around one third of the 200 items sampled by a number of local authorities for DNA testing at the Public Analyst laboratory contain genetically modified soya or maize. Only one item stated the fact on the label despite an EU law, introduced in September 1998, requiring human food products containing DNA from genetically modified ingredients to be labelled. Many of the companies concerned said they were unaware of the presence of genetically modified material in their products.

Genetically Modified Food - so what's the problem?

Basically, we are applying new technology derived from a young science, both not fully understood, without any real idea of the long term effects. We have a similar situation as existed forty odd years ago with nuclear power and chemical agriculture. Both those dreams proved to be more like nightmares, and it is vital we don't make the same mistakes again. The act of giving organisms new genes changes how those organisms function inside, not just how they behave to look at. It's a bit like changing a cake ingredient without knowing the recipe - you can give the new ingredients to the cook, and hope you get the result you want.  A chocolate cake made with gravy browning might look a like a chocolate cake, but the taste? Living things are much more complex than cakes, and the way the chemicals that make them work interact in complex and varied ways. Our current knowledge of these processes is too underdeveloped to safely be releasing new genetic material into the wild, where it can hybridise with wild types and have unknown effects on wildlife. We already know that weed killer resistance can pass to wild weeds, and that some GM crops damage useful animals like ladybirds. It could be an ecological disaster on a par with DDT, and an agricultural one as bad as BSE. If not worse. And they told us that was safe, too.

And then they want us to eat it. The vast majority of food that has GM ingredients in it is NOT labelled, so we can't choose, unless you go for guaranteed GM free brands, or organic food, which is always GM free. Currently, most GM food we get has GM soya or maize in it, which could be any of the processed food you might buy, things as diverse as tinned soups, bread, ready meals, sausages, burgers, the list is huge. Some tomato products are also GM, as are some vegetarian cheeses. The companies who are profiting from all this, companies like Monsanto, are happy with the confusion They hope people won't be bothered to check, or make a fuss, so they can slowly take a huge share of our diet by stealth. Only be resisting them now can we stop them, and as the past few months have shown, it can be done.

More info - Food and Biotechnology campaigner, Spencer Cooke. (01433) 0621658. sjcfoe@smalldale.demon.co.uk

Stop the Crop

Since the last newsletter, the whole issue of genetically modified (GM) food has exploded onto the national agenda. The government’s position has been shown to be dubiously reasoned at best, verging on the duplicitous at worst. A key Cabinet memo leaked to Friends of the Earth shows mounting panic at the heart of Government over policy on GM food and crops. It reveals that the Government lacks answers to vital GM policy questions on health; on possible environmental damage; on the legality of a moratorium on GM crops; on labelling of food with GM ingredients and even on the Government's proclaimed 'voluntary deal' with the GM industry. The biotech industry itself has been forced onto the back foot, and the supermarkets have been falling over each other to guarantee their own brands as GM free. Make no mistake, the issue is not dead, and the campaign far from won. GM crops are still being planted in test sites all over the country, and GM food is still on the shelves in name brand foods containing such ingredients as soya and maize derivatives. The current profile of the issue, added to the massive and proven public rejection of GM in food, gives us a unique opportunity to kill off this technology for good, and build momentum for safe, sustainable food production into the next century. And there's plenty you can do;

Write to your MP, and ask them to raise the issue with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Keep up the pressure where you shop. Ask them if they sell GM food, and if they do, or don't know, make it clear you will not buy it. Check what you buy, and try to get organic food if you can. Iceland are own-brand GM free, and the other major supermarkets are promising to be so within months, with the exception of Tesco, who should be targeted for foot dragging.

This is a mater for everyone, we all have to eat! Raise it with your friends and work mates, and at any other clubs, societies and groups you belong to. Maybe they would consider action over GM food? There is now an active broad based coalition group, Sheffield Against Genetic Engineering, meeting regularly in the Fat Cat pub, Alma Rd, every other Wednesday at 7.30 starting on the 14th of April.

More info - Food and Biotechnology campaigner, Spencer Cooke
Tel: (01433) 062 1658.
Email: sjcfoe@smalldale.demon.co.uk

Sheffield FoE Food Campaign Starts

At our January meeting the group decided we want to concentrate on Food issues, in particular on campaigning against the premature introduction of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO's). We considered what we want to achieve, who are our targets, who are our allies, what we should do to achieve our targets and how we will know when we've won. Since that meeting the pace of activity in this area has been so fast that much of what we considered then has been achieved and no doubt by the time you read this more will have happened. So I am sorry if some of what I report below is clearly out of date, but this does mean that all of us working on this issue have been making progress. Although sometimes with out doing very much!

What we want to achieve.
Overall (these are national Friends of the Earth objectives)

• Achieve by 2000 a five year freeze on the commercial growing and import of GM crops in the UK and the introduction of strict legal liability for environmental or health impacts arising from GM crop and food proliferation by 2005.
• Persuade four leading UK supermarket chains to remove GM materials from all their own brand products by the end of 2000
• Achieve by 2003 a government support package for organic production in the UK that is equivalent to the best in the EU and is funded by a proportion of the revenues from an agrochemicals tax.
• Achieve a measurable increase in both public awareness of and the proportion of food produced and supplied through local food links (box schemes and farmers' markets etc) in the UK over the next five years in order to break the dependency on the agribusiness food chain.

Locally

• Persuade the local large food suppliers, e.g. schools and hospitals, to remove GM materials from the food they supply.
• Persuade local decision makers, i.e. councillors, MP's and MEP's to commit publicly to a five year moratorium on GM foods.
• Promote local sources of organic food and establish local food links.

We have started writing to MP's and as usual have received more positive replies from the backbenchers while the ministers have followed the Government line. It seems that councillors have already voted to remove GM products from school meals.

There are a lot of other organisations working on this issue such as SAGE, Sheffield Against Genetic Engineering, and there have been various
meetings organised by SAGE.

Ideas we haven't taken forward as yet include a local 'where you can buy GM-free food' directory, targeting specific supermarkets for protests, asking restaurants, pubs and so on not to use GM foods and setting up a GM page on are web site.

If you want to get involved come along to one of our meetings. If you want to know more try Friends of the Earth on 0171 490 1555, email: info@foe.co.uk or the web site: www.foe.co.uk

Campaign News: May-Aug 1998

Waste Minimisation Campaign to Start Soon
During the March general meeting we decided the group’s priorities for the next 6 to 12 months. Our first aim is to carry out some campaigning on food issues which would then be terminated after a special general meeting in May with one of Friends of the Earth’s national food campaigners giving a talk. We also hope to invite many other speakers such as local organic food growers and people from allotments. After this short campaign, the group will turn its attention to a lot of campaigning about recycling, packaging and other waste minimisation issues rather than campaigning on lots of different issues. We haven’t decided exactly which waste issues we will campaign on but if you have any ideas and would like to get involved please turn up to one of our general meetings.

Sustainable Consumption
As mentioned in the last newsletter, Sheffield FoE were planning to take part in a day of action as part of the International No-Shop Day. We can now report back that several of our members made an appearance at Meadowhall to get the sustainable consumption message across to the public. Members set up a variety of board games and played musical instruments to highlight alternatives to mass consumption.

Sustainable Consumption - Take Action
Keep the pressure up for tough laws to ensure electrical goods are designed for reuse and recycling. FoE have targeted Dixons (the UK’s largest electrical retailer), but they have not yet responded. When you go shopping in Dixons or Currys (Part of the Dixons group) ask the following 3 questions:

• Will you take back electrical products at the end of their lives?
• Will you ensure the parts are reused or recycled?
• What plans do you have to label products with their expected life-spans so I can buy long lasting ones?

Recycling in Sheffield drops
Figures from the Council’s own performance indicators show that Sheffield is falling well behind on its recycling, no doubt partly as a result of the large capacity wheelie bins issued to most people. The percentage of household waste recycled has fallen from 4.65% in 93/94 to 2.47% in 96/97 while the cost of rubbish disposal has shot up from £7.58 per tonne to £13.35 over the same period. Inevitably the refurbishment of the Bernard Road incinerator to bring it up to EC emission standards and the landfill tax on all rubbish that had to be dumped for a year while it was closed for the  work won’t have helped (total cost now put at 15M). While closed the properties normally heated by the system had to be heated by the back-up gas boiler.

At the December Green Party meeting the Council’s recycling officer admitted that the proceeds from the landfill tax  is likely to go to ‘attractive’ causes such as tree planting when money really needs to be spent on better recycling facilities. It is now well documented that there is no real incentive to increase recycling in Sheffield because this could undermine the viability of the incinerator and the associated district heating scheme. (Taken from Greensheaf)

Recycling - Did You Know?

• Did you know that the UK’s Christmas cards and wrapping paper this year used the equivalent of around a quarter of a million trees?
• Out of every £75 pounds spent on groceries, £10 is for the packaging?
• A returnable container system for drinks could create up to 4,000 jobs in the UK?

Food News
Unilever are now labelling one of their smaller brand names, Bachelors Beanfeast (or should that be Genebeast?), as containing genetically engineered soya. As Unilever tests the water for public reaction, FoE have been warning people to watch out for this small label and also to be aware of other brands which Unilever might be thinking about using GE ingredients.

However, on a positive note, as of 1 May, Iceland supermarkets’ own brand products will be free of all genetically engineered ingredients. The tough stance was outlined at a press conference on 18 March in London. FoE supports this position and urges all other supermarkets to follow Iceland.

Forests & Paper Campaign
Finnish company UPM-Kymmene, major paper suppliers to the UK and involved in using wood from the last old forests in Finland, has further demonstrated its lack of commitment to the environment by announcing a joint venture with an Indonesian company APRIL. The venture will involve clear-felling logged-over natural forest in Indonesia and replacing it with industrial monoculture plantation. The APRIL enterprise is also involved in a dispute with a local village who are claiming compensation for loss of their land to the company. FoE groups in Finland, the Netherlands and the UK are launching a campaign calling on UPM-Kymmene to pull out of the deal.

Meanwhile, several old-growth forests in Finland were logged in the past few months. UPM-Kymmene is believed to have bought wood from at least some of the old-growth areas. UPM Kymmene supplies paper to IPC Magazines (publishers of New Scientist, Marie Claire etc.) and BBC Magazines (publishers of Radio Times and BBC Wildlife). UPM-Kymmene is a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a group of companies supposedly committed to sustainable development, which doesn’t square with either clear-felling rainforest, or destroying the last old-growth forests in Finland.

To take action write to UPM-Kymmene’s president, Mr Juha Niemeläa at PO Box 203, FIN-00171 Helsinki, Finland. Say that as a UK paper consumer you urge them to show their commitment to sustainable development by withdrawing from the deal with APRIL and declaring a moratorium on using wood from Finland’s last old-growth forests.

Campaign News from Local Groups
Leeds Friends of the Earth’s Wild Woods Campaigners took to the street with a petition calling for the newspaper industry to buy more recycled paper. This very vocal day of action drew a lot of attention and filled the petition sheets in record time.

Thorne and Hatfield Moors have retained their status as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, despite plans to remove the designation by English Nature at the end of last year. FoE local groups, particular in the north east, quickly responded to a call for action at Conference in September and threw themselves into the fight to save the Moors

Near Doncaster - the last surviving lowland raised peat bog in England. Without a local group in the immediate area, Robin Maynard and Matt Phillips from FoE attended and spoke at a public meeting organised by the local authority. There are now murmurings of a new FoE group in Doncaster.

Frankenstein masks and lab coats were the order of the day for groups in the West Yorkshire FoE Network who quizzed local shoppers about their choices, and cheered and shook hands with shoppers leaving Safeways for taking part in the “biggest genetic experiment”.