World Consumer Rights Day‏

[Drjones Profile]

World Consumer Rights Day‏


Today's World Consumer Rights Day which makes it the perfect time for consumers in the European Union to demand labelling of all products produced via GM animal feed. And two recent developments have made it vital that we renew the call for supermarkets to ban GM animal feed from their meat, fish, eggs, and dairy product lines.

First, a recent report commissioned by the UK Government's Food Standards Agency (FSA), that explored consumer attitudes to GM foods, found a broad consensus among consumers that labels should flag products produced using animals fed GM animal feed: http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1 ... rs-emotion al-gm-opponentshttp://bit.ly/6MUHRv
Currently, such products do not have to be labelled denying consumers' their right to know and make informed choices about the food they buy for themselves and their families.

The biotech industry has successfully lobbied to avoid such labelling being made mandatory in the past by maintaining that animals fed on GM feed are no different from those reared using non-GM feed.

But a comprehensive new review of the scientific literature by Professor Jack Heinemann (see his conclusions below) has undermined this claim.
Supermarkets have largely followed the industry's reasoning in their refusal to implement a GM-free policy for all their meat, eggs and dairy production, even though they are fully aware of consumer demand for GM-free products. While labelling should be made available purely on the basis of transparency and the consumer's right to choose, Heinemann's review shows that GM components fed to farm animals do enter the animal and animal product food chain - and that GM-fed animals ARE different from non-GM fed ones.

TAKE ACTION: WRITE TO SUPERMARKETS

We are asking everyone in the UK and the rest of Europe to please TAKE ACTION on this vitally important issue. Please write to the supermarkets to ask them to ban GM animal feed from their meat, fish, eggs, and dairy product lines. The UK supermarkets' addresses are at the end of this email. Sample points to make in your letter (please use your own words as far as possible): *The recent FSA-commissioned report, compiled by independent researchers at the National Centre for Social Research, that explored consumer attitudes to GM foods, found a broad consensus among consumers that labels should flag products produced using animals fed GM animal feed, which do not currently have to be labeled: http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1 ... rs-emotion al-gm-opponents *Studies cited in Heinemann's report show that animals that consume GM feed can react in a way that is unique to an exposure to GM plants, as revealed through metabolic, physiological or immunological responses: http://www.biosafety-info.net/file_dir/ ... 716b0f.pdf *Studies cited in Heinemann's report show that GM plant material can transfer to animals exposed to GM feed in their diets or environment, and there can be a difference in animals or animal products as a result of exposure to GM feed: http://www.biosafety-info.net/file_dir/ ... 716b0f.pdf *Studies cited in Heinemann’s report show we can't assume that raising an animal on GM feed will not affect the final product – even if there is no detectable residue from the GM material: http://www.biosafety-info.net/file_dir/ ... 716b0f.pdf *Please ensure that your suppliers of meat, eggs and dairy products feed their livestock only non-GM animal feed. If you have ranges of meat, eggs and dairy that are fed on non-GM feed, please let me know which these are and label these ranges clearly as "GM Free".

[Drjones Profile]

GMWATCH has every supermarket in the UK's details on the site,so visit there and get writing like i will be doing...