GE crops in animal feed

Chickens demand GE-free feed outside the Inghams offices, up to 300,000 tons of GE soy sneaks into Australia's food chain every year.

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Forget the GE industry spin about GMOs solving world hunger. Current GE crops are grown to sell pesticides and are used to feed pigs, chickens and cows in the rich part of the world.

Around 80 percent of GE soya is being used in animal feed. This means that millions of tons of GE soya are sneaking into the food chain largely unnoticed because the end products (meat, dairy, eggs) are not required to be labelled in most countries.

Each year thousands of tonnes of GE-crops are imported to Europe to be used in animal feed, mainly from the US and Argentina. Since 18 April 2004 the European Union has mandatory labelling of GE fodder. But there are still no labelling regulations for animal products like milk, eggs and meat.

However the European feed market, which is the largest in the world, is increasingly demanding non-GE supplies. While labelling of animal products will not be mandatory, major European meat, milk and egg producers and retailers are starting to guarantee non-GE fed products. Our campaigners all over Europe have been targeting dairy producers to encourage them to go GE free and not use GE animal feed.

In-Depth:

Environmental and health concerns of genetically engineered (GE) crops in animal feed

Sainsbury's trials GE-free milk

McDonald's NZ goes GE-free

UK dairy could ditch GE overnight

On the Bunge trail

Check out our animation GE Soya Cycle Exposed