Birmingham Friends of the Earth Action Briefing Dec 98/Jan 99

"Frankenstein Foods - No Thanks!" Say Sainsbury's Shoppers as 'Gene Beast' Hits Birmingham Streets

Kings Heath shoppers pledge their support for GMO food ban

On Saturday November 21st the FOE 'GENE BEAST' brought home the dangers of genetically modified foodstuffs to shoppers in a busy Birmingham suburb.

Report by Malte Plathe, photo by Andy Pryke

"It was a cold and windy, grey autumn morning in the peaceful environs of Kings Heath. As on every Saturday, cars crowded the road and Saturday shoppers went about their Saturday shopping ... But in front of Sainsbury's, nothing was as it should be, for out of a huge Sainsbury's shopping bag there crawled the most hideous creature anyone this side of Birmingham had ever seen! The Gene-Beast reared its ugly head: part fish, part tomato, part turnip, part banana, it set out to prowl the street in search of its less sentient relatives. Little did it know that these were being carried around in tins and tubs and plastic wrappers: processed food products with gene soya, long-life tomatoes and herbicide resistant maize abound on our supermarket shelves. Luckily for this Saturday's shoppers, fearless Friends of the Earth campaigners battled valiantly to ban genetically modified food from our tables.

Coincidentally, the previous week an internal document had been leaked to Greenpeace from Monsanto, the US biotechnology concern promoting GM food world-wide. In this document the market researchers state quite openly that the acceptance of gene-food in the UK is declining rather than rising. Apparently Monsanto has been targeting politicians and government scientists - and is increasingly doing so -in its campaign to bring GM food to our tables. Therefore we, the consumers, should do so, too!

"We have to make clear wherever we can that we do not trust genetic engineering, and that we don't want these products forced down our throats".

Recent polls show that 58% of supermarket customers in the UK oppose GM foods, so it is probably not too surprising that the response to our stall was very good. Over a hundred people signed individual letters to the manager of the Kings Heath Sainsbury's supermarket, asking him to stop selling food with genetically modified ingredients until research has proven these to be safe.

Many people stopping at our stall also signed a petition to the city council to exclude genetically modified food from school meals. (Given that MPs in the House of Commons don't have to eat GM food, it seems only fair to ask that our children be treated likewise.)

It was a cold and windy day, but with the overwhelming response from the public it was well worth it. - And good fun, too, though maybe not so much for Mr. Gene Beast himself, who could barely see where he was going under the scary mask. The rest of us enjoyed watching him all the more!

Malte Plath