Feature story - 5 February, 2007
European citizens have long rejected genetically engineered (GE) food in their supermarkets but under the current EU labelling laws, animal products such as milk, meat and eggs coming from animals fed with GE feed can be sold without any labels warning of their GE content. One million people across the Europe Union (EU) want that to change.
One million signatures wind their way to the European Commission in Brussels.
The petition, signed by more than one million citizens, was
delivered to Markos Kyprianou, European Commissioner for Health and
Food Safety in Brussels today. The petition has travelled across
Europe from Ireland to Poland and Finland to Greece with people
young and old calling for the labelling of animal products where
the animals have been fed with GE feed.
A loophole in EU law exempts animal products from labelling
requirements: foods like cooking oil, ketchup and cake mix have to
be labelled if the ingredients include 0.9 percent or more of
ingredients with GE. But food products derived from animals fed
with GE feed, like meat, milk and eggs do not need to be labelled
at all.
"This petition is a call for the EU to stop letting GE in
through the back door of Europe and onto our plates through a
loophole in the law," said Marco Contiero of Greenpeace European
Unit. "We will be asking Commissioner Kyprianou today, when we
deliver the million signatures, to grant citizens the right to
choose for themselves whether to eat food from animals fed with GE
feed."
Over 90 percent of GE crops imported into the EU are soya and
maize destined for animal feed. The diet of farm animals in Europe
is typically composed of up to 30 percent GE crops. This amounts to
20 million tonnes of GE crops entering the EU food chain each year
without consumers being told.
EU citizens want this legal loophole to be closed and all food
products derived from GE to be correctly labelled. One million
people are waiting for the EU to give them the right to choose what
food they want to eat.
Sign Up
Sign up for a free e-zine.
Support Us
With your help, we can keep GE off the shelves.