GREENPEACE BLOCKS CARGILL’S GMO FACILITY IN FRANCE

2 December 1999

Brest, France, - Greenpeace today protested in France the flood of genetically engineered crops from the USA to Europe and demanded the world’s largest grain trader Cargill to stop importing GE crops to Europe. About 30 activists blocked the gates of a Cargill soybean mill in Brest and prevented transportation of GE crops from leaving the plant.

“Our ship, the Sirius, has been at the Brest harbour since Sunday and hundreds of people have visited the boat over the past days and sent faxes and protest letters to Cargill,” said Arnaud Apoteker of Greenpeace. “They are not amused that Cargill is using their hometown as a gateway for GE crops to European dinner tables.”

Most supermarket chains and major food producers in France and Europe have now adopted a GE free policy. Most animal feed producers and animal breeders in France want to use non-GE animal feed only, but have not been able to locate the supply, according to information acquired by Greenpeace. It is also impossible for farmers to avoid animal feed with GE ingredients since no labelling rules for animal fodder exists in the EU.

“A draft for a Novel feed regulation has been sitting on the EU Commissions desks now for over two years,” said Arnaud Apoteker, “but only recently the new Commissioner Byrne announced that he would take another two years before enacting such legislation. We suggest that EU member states make GE feed labelling mandatory immediately until the Commission finally acts.”

Cargill is the leading importer of soybeans to Europe. “Two days ago Cargill issued a statement about studying the segregation of GE crops from conventional crops, if consumers were prepared to pay a higher price for that,” said Apoteker. “But European consumers expect food giants like Cargill to respect their rejection of GMOs in the food chain, including animal feed. We demand that Cargill immediately stops force feeding us with unwanted and unneeded GMOs.”

About 95 per cent of the soya grown in the US is used for animal feed. In 1998 the EU imported nearly 15 million tons of soybeans. During the three years of commercial growing of GE soybeans the US soya exports to Europe have dropped about 39 per cent, while GE free exports from Brazil rose from 3,1 to 5,4 million tonnes.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
- Arnaud Apoteker, Campaigner in Brest, +33.607.573160
- Benedikt Haerlin, Greenpeace International GE Campaign, +49.30.3088
9912
- Mika Railo, Greenpeace International, press desk +31.20.5249 548

Visit our Genetic Engineering campaign website for more information.