GE-shipment blocked in the UK

Yesterday evening our campaigners in the UK prevented one of the world's biggest ships from docking at Bristol and unloading a huge cargo of American GE crops.

Four climbers used a jet boat and caving ladders to board the 125,000 tonne ship in the Bristol Channel. The Panamanian-registered MV Etoile is now to anchored off Rhoose, South Wales.

The shipment of GM maize was destined for dairy farms that supply milk to Britain's biggest supermarkets. Despite promising to remove GE-fed products from their lines Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Safeways all sell own-brand milk from cows fed on American genetically-engineered crops.

Our GE campainger in the UK, Sarah North said: "Our climbers have stopped a massive GM cargo unloading in Bristol, but now we want this ship to turn around and go back to America. Supermarkets like Sainsbury's are supporting these shipments by selling milk from cows fed on GE. They said they'd keep GE off their shelves, but by supplying own-brand GE milk they're letting it in to Britain through the back door."

Official DEFRA figures compiled by Greenpeace reveal that a million tonnes of maze and soya is entering the country every year from countries that grow GE. Sarah North added: "The big high street retailers would like customers to think GE is no longer an issue, but every few weeks huge shipments of GM cross the Atlantic because of the hypocritical policies of supermarkets like Sainsbury's."

"Consumer polls have consistently shown that the majority of consumers prefer GE-free food,”added Dan Hindsgaul, International GE campaigner "What we never see is consumers demanding GE food, begging the million dollar question: why isn’t the global food industry doing more to make sure supply meets demand rather than force feeding GE food to consumers?"

- Find out more about the MV Etoile

Discover the 'scary in the diary'campain in the UK:

- Read about Sainsbury's launching a line of GE-free milk

- Read about Sainsbury's Scary Milk

- Read how UK Dairy could ditch GE overnight

- Find out about when Jamie Oliver and sixty cows invaded Sainsbury's

- Read the briefing GM and Dairy Cow Feed

- Watch our movie to find out what is so scary about the dairy

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

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