Supermarket Success!

As well as the recent hijinks on the high seas our local volunteers and activists have been busy in supermarkets around world, communicating the message that we are not going to accept genetically engineered food whether we are in Brisbane or in Barcelona.

These actions have been ongoing throughout the GE campaign, in the last few days alone supermarkets in Australia, Chile, Spain, Luxembourg, Italy, Germany and the UK have been blitzed. Through these activities we can see that consumer power is mighty enough to take on international companies. This week's victory in Luxembourg is a case in point.

Following an action on Monday that saw a dozen activists emptying the shelves in an Auchan supermarket of all products known to contain GMOs, the supermarket chain has committed itself to removing all GE products from its stores in Luxemberg. It is also going to implement this new GE-free policy in France.

"Following Auchan's announcement the whole of Luxembourg is free from all GE labelled products. The industry has listened to us and to the consumers' and respected our wishes for GE-free food," declared Christopher Burman our GE campaigner in Luxembourg.

In Chile our Gene Detectives visited a Lider supermarket and very generously reorganised the shelves for consumers by labelling and separating the GE products. This kind of activity tells the government that people have the right to know what is in their food. Currently there is no law that enforces the consumers right to know and the labelling of the GE food.

"The consumers have the right to know what they are eating, and choose what kind of food they want," said Juan Carlos Cuchacovich, our campaigner in Chile. "The government attitude indicates that they have no concern on informing the public about the options on food, and if something goes wrong nobody is to blame, and the consumers will be their own."

Our activists in Australia have been following the foood chain to unlabelled genetically engineered feed in chicken products, which are for sale in Woolworths and Safeways supermarkets. The GE feed chicken's are supplied by Inghams, the single largest user of genetically engineered products in Australia.

Our volunteers visited Woolworths and Safeways supermarkets in Melbourne, Hobart, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane dressed in comical chicken suits. The activists encouraged people to voice their concern over GE-fed chicken products to the supermarket management.

"From feedback we've received around the country, we know that people are very concerned that GE is sneaking into our food chain in this unlabelled way. The kids loved the big chickens, whereas their parents were very concerned about this serious issue. People don't want to be part of this giant genetic experiment which only benefits the chemical companies who produce GE crops," commented Tina Meckel our GE campaigner in Australia.

"We have shown Australia how 300,000 tonnes of GE soya sneaks into our food chain each year. Most of it is fed to chickens and therefore becomes invisible to consumers. With our nationwide supermarket activities we are now showing consumers how GE ends up on our dinner plates, and what they can do to stop it."

Gene Detective activities have also been organised in Spain where dozens of volunteers have been checking that Spanish food producers and supermarkets have been properly applying the new EU labelling legislation.

Supermarkets were targeted in Barcelona, Alicante, Majorca, Granada, Seville, Valencia, Zaragoza and Valladolid. "These activities constitutes a step ahead for consumers' freedom of choice," declared Juan Felipe Carrasco, our GE campaigner in Spain. However as in other European countries diary products and the meat or the eggs derived from animals fed on GE feed is not labelled.

"It is shameful that the rights of the consumers to know if the milk, meat and eggs are derived from GE-fed animals is ignored, this too will contribute to the destruction of the global health of the planet," added Carrasco.

Milk has been the focus of attention throughout the UK where our pantomime cows have been paying visits to Sainsbury's supermarkets. Our herd of around 30 cows has been visiting its stores in Greenwich, London, Nottingham, Bristol, Hornchurch in Essex, Leeds, Birmingham and Reading since the beginning of February.

Our volunteers make their point by dressing up as cows, chaining themselves to the dairy isles and erecting giant milk bottles emblazoned with the words 'GM milk sold here', others explain to customers about avoiding genetically modified milk. Our volunteers have also carried out 'milk swaps' where they have given people organic milk in return for GE milk.

Sarah North our campaigner in the UK said: "Most customers don't even know Sainsbury's own-brand milk is GE. Sainsbury's says it only sells the best quality food, but when it comes to milk it has a long way to go. Lots of the kids are excited when they see our costumes. We tell them that when it comes to Sainsbury's milk, there's something scary in the dairy."

Although many of our actions have a fun side to them, the message is loud and clear, we will not tolerate any GMOs in our food, be they labelled as such or hiding in unlabelled meat and diary produce. Market rejection, encouraged by the hard work of our volunteers who are in the supermarkets every week, should ensure more and more victories as seen in Luxembourg this week.

Take Action:

- Want to get involved in our Trolley Watch? Click here to see how you can help.

- Check out what is happening in your country

- For more information about the implications of the new EU labelling and traceability rules read this.

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