Joanna Blythman

The Grocer, UK, 21 May 2011

“The only redeeming feature of the overbearing power of supermarkets is that

they can use their muscle for the good. A perfect opportunity for such

intervention is presented by the British Poultry Council (BPC), which is

toying with the idea of dumping its long-standing guarantee that members use

only non-GM poultry feed. The BPC says that this "unsustainable" rule is

"imposed by retailers". It's too hard to source non-GM soya, it complains.

This is nonsense. 40 per cent of Brazilian soya is certified non-GM so if

poultry producers can't get their act together to source some from the

perfectly efficient companies importing it, they clearly aren't trying.

Any fool can see that BPC producers would be slitting their own throats if

they went down the GM path. Exposés by Jamie and Hugh of sordid UK broiler

sheds left the British chicken industry with a chronic PR problem. Add a

further GM taint, and chicken could become Public Meat Enemy Number One. Why

on earth would retailers stand back and let that happen?

These days, food production needs to be seen to be clean and green. Note

that the Swedes have just decided to use only GM-free feed for their pigs,

closing off the last route of GM feed into their food chain.

Why? The GM story just keeps getting worse. Scientific evidence that GM

crops have negative effects on laboratory animals - damage to the immune

system, kidneys, liver, and negative impacts on fertility - is stacking up.

Understandably, consumers may feel that if GM foods aren't that great for

their pet rodents, they themselves would rather not eat them.

Far from putting food on the Third World plate, shocking evidence is

emerging from charities, such as Christian Aid, that in countries like

India, buying GM seed has forced poor farmers into a spiral of debt,

pesticide pollution and crop failure. Some estimates suggest that thousands

of farmers there have committed suicide as a result.

The BPC could try to bury its unpopular volte face by signing up to the

Roundtable on Responsible Soya (RTRS), which belies its name by permitting

the use of GM soya. But then, the RTRS is being outed by environment groups

as a crude food industry exercise in greenwashing. Better the supermarkets

have a quiet word in the BPC's ear now, before it makes a catastrophic

error.”

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/Articles.aspx?page=articles&ID=218218