WESSEX

DORSET CONSUMERS URGED TO LOBBY SUPERMARKETS

unlabelled genetically modified foodstuffs arriving in shops before Christmas

(NLP WESSEX LOCAL PAGE)

Wessex News Release

September 1996

The Natural Law Party is urging housewives and consumers in Dorset to write as a matter of urgency to their local and regional supermarket managers demanding a commitment to the labelling of all foodstuffs which include genetically engineered components.

By December unlabelled items on British supermarkets shelves will contain oil or flour from genetically modified soya plants imported from the United States. Two-thirds of supermarket food contains soya, including breads, pastries, vegetable oils, ice cream, chocolate, margarine, cereals and processed meat products.

According to Dorset NLP spokesman, Mark Griffiths, the issue is potentially a serious threat to human health:

"Contrary to the claims of the manufacturers the processes used to create these artificial foodstuffs are inherently uncontrollable, and the long-term effects on individuals and the environment are simply unknown. The procedures for testing them are extremely limited when compared to those required for pharmaceutical products, yet in those cases each medicine is consumed only by a small percentage of the population who do so knowingly. As things stand at the moment everyone could be unknowingly eating genetically modified food by the end of the year. Frankly it's a scandal on a scale which makes the BSE saga look totally insignificant."

In 1989 a Japanese company introduced a food supplement produced using genetically engineered bacteria onto the American food market without testing or labelling. It killed 37 people and permanently paralysed 1500 more. The company is now defending a number of law suits.

"It is completely immoral that the general public should be unknowingly experimented on this way. It's now absolutely vital that consumers demand that retailers label such products before it is too late. Many more genetically modified products are in the pipeline, and they will soon be here. Everyone should write to their local and regional supermarket managers demanding compulsory labelling immediately."

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