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GREENPEACE APPEALS TO NESTLE SHAREHOLDERS: NO FUTURE FOR GENE-TECHNOLOGY!
Lausanne, Switzerland - 5 June 1997
Protests at Nestlé's 130th shareholders meeting at Palais de Beaulieu in Lausanne Switzerland: Over 50 Greenpeace activists from various European countries dressed up as rabbits*) appealed this afternoon to the shareholders of the world's largest food producing corporation. In front of the main entrance to the Palais Greenpeacers mounted a giant banner bearing this message: "Respect Life on Earth-Stop Genetic Manipulation". Emblazoned above the letters was the Nestlé's familiar birds nest logo from which emerged a monstrous creature-half bird, half octopus.
No chocolate offerings to welcome the participants of Nestlé's 130th shareholders meeting early on Thursday afternoon, as activists of the enviromental organisation Greenpeace from Italy, France, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland displayed protest banners denouncing Nestlé's involvment in genetic engineering: "Naturally-not Nestlé" the banners proclaimed in three languages. The international "guinea pigs" then presented the shareholders with an appeal to remind them of their responsibility towards consumers around the world as co-owners of the world's largest food corporation and encouraging them to impress on Nestlés new CEO, Peter Brabeck, to focus on natural, healthy products from sustainable production instead of betting on questionable short-term gains through genetic manipulation.
If implemented, such a policy would mark a clear departure from the views of Helmut Maucher, the retiring Nestlé CEO who never minced words about his support for genetically modified food products and paid little heed to the concerns of consumers as expressed in countless surveys. "Genetically altered foods are inevitable no matter how heated the public controvery surrounding them. Nestlé will no opt of producing such foods anywhere in the world," he was quoted as saying in an interview with the German weekly magazine "Stern" (Nov. 11, 1996).
In their appeal, Greenpeace calls the attention of Nestlé shareholders to the fact that genetic engineering is a risk technology. No country in Europe, Greenpeace point out, has yet agreed to allow planting of genetically altered BT-corn produced by Novartis. Human health risks cannot be ruled out for those who might eat such products. Environmental damage caused by the spreading of genetically manipulated organisms to wild plants or animals or to viruses and bacteria is both unforeseeable and irreversible according to scientists, Greenpeace says.
"Do you, as a shareholder, really want to bear the blame for turning our food, our entire natural heritage into a laboratory product, for putting our health and that of our natural surroundings at the mercy of molucular biologists beyond our control? Do you really want to be an accomplice in the process of denaturing nature by violating its very core?" Greenpeace asks shareholders in their appeal.
"Seize the opportunity presented by the leadership transition from Helmut Maucher to Peter Brabeck. Remind your corporate leaders of their own environmental guidelines and pressure them to respect life on earth. "
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Greenpeace gene-protection campaign, Bruno Heinzer:+41 1 447 4121
Greenpeace press office tel: +41 1 447 4156