January '08 | Silent invasion
The alarming extent of the 'Silent Invasion' of our food chain by GM material hidden in animal feed was revealed by the Soil Association at the end of 2007.
The Association's report highlighted that:
- most of the milk, dairy products and pork in UK shops are being produced from animals fed GM
- around 60% of the maize and 30% of the soya fed to dairy cattle and pigs is GM
- around one third of eggs come from GM-fed hens.
- food industry marks of quality, such as the 'Little Red Tractor', 'Lion Quality' eggs, 'barn' eggs and free-range eggs, and ethical labels like 'Freedom Foods', allow GM feed
- although the UK poultry sector has widely adopted a GM-free feed policy, frozen, processed and 'takeaway' chicken is largely imported and very likely GM-fed
- 59% of farmers didn't know if their feed was GM
- nearly 29% of feed containing soya above the labelling threshold of 0.9% was unlabelled
- the Food Standards Agency, which is responsible for enforcing food labelling laws, is not conducting any tests to monitor compliance.
In 2002, the supermarkets removed all GM ingredients which would require labelling from their own-brand products. But they have resisted direct demands for the use of non-GM feed for animal produce which don't have to be labelled. Their excuses are to claim inadequate availability of non-GM grains and the excessive costs for farmers.
The Soil Association has established, however, that non-GM feed supplies are abundant and can expand to fit demand. EU capacity to produce protein crops is limited, not by a lack of agricultural reserves, but by the Blairhouse Agreement with the USA which results in Europe having to import 70% of its plant protein. The Royal College of Agriculture has calculated that non-GM-fed livestock would result in a premium of only 2 to 4 pence per kilo on the price of pork and 0.4 pence per litre on the price of milk. The current strain on world grain supplies caused by the falling yields of our unsustainable high-input agriculture and by the diversion of agricultural land to agrifuel-production, both GM-driven, is causing feed prices to rocket and is leading to price hikes for all animal produce far in excess of these few pennies.
OUR COMMENT
The Advisory Committee for Animal Feed has stated that “The fact that feed safety is so closely linked to food safety is something many people overlook”. Time, therefore, to stop overlooking the obvious ...
ACTION 1 - Ask your MP to sign EDM 383 (see below).
ACTION 2 - Support the Soil Association's campaign for GM labelling
In view of an NOP survey in 2006 which found that 87% of the UK public wanted food from GM-fed animals to be labelled (up from 79% in a survey in 2001), and a Europe-wide petition demanding such labelling in 2007 which collected a million signatures, the Soil Association is calling on our Government and the European Commission to legally require labelling. Check out www.soilassociation.org. (The Soil Association's report, 'Silent Invasion', is available through their website, £10 + pp.)
ACTION 3 - Support Friends of the Earth Europe's 'GMOs Campaign'
Friends of the Earth Europe is asking for a reform of the international trade issues that constrain the EU to import plant protein from abroad. Check out www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/Index.htm
EDM 383
GM FOOD 26.11.07
Drew, David
That this House notes the concern over the amount of genetically modified animal feed used in dairy and pig farming; acknowledges that concerns have been raised over labelling of products, such as milk and meat, as TM-free when the animals were reared using GM products; understands that the only food standard that guarantees non-GM involvement is organic;' and calls on the Government to review food labelling criteria and introduce requirements to give consumers an ;informed choice between GM and GM-free foods.
(You can check whether your MP has already signed this EDM at http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/
If not, you can contact your MP through www.writetothem.com and ask him to sign it.)
SOURCES:
- FSA News, April 2007
- Friends of the Earth Europe Press release, 23.11.07
- Soil Association Press Release, 16.11.07
- Institute of Science in Society Press Release, 14.01.08