Police arresting the skipper of the Rainbow Warrior
At 11pm, Monday April 26th police boarded the Rainbow Warrior
and arrested its captain, Derek Nicholls of New Zealand. He was
charged with failing to comply with directions by the harbour
master and with entering a pilotage port without taking on a pilot.
He has been bailed to appear in Port Kembla local court in
June.
However,
less than five hours later Greenpeace Australia's activists were
back on the job, branding the office tower of Inghams national
headquarters in western Sydney with the message "YUK GM feed!" next
to the company logo.
The chicken industry is Australia's biggest user of GE soya and
Inghams is the country's leading poultry supplier. Its poultry is
marketed nationally under the Inghams, Woolworths, and Safeway home
brand labels without any mention of the fact that the chickens are
raised on GE feed.
Tina Meckel, our GE campaigner in Australia said that Greenpeace
is sending a clear message to Inghams and the rest of the
Australian poultry industry that the company could no longer sneak
GE crops into our food chain.
"Survey after survey shows that the vast majority of Australians
are saying a clear 'NO' to genetically engineered foods," said
Meckel. "It's time that Inghams listened to their customers instead
of involving us in a genetic experiment without our knowledge or
consent."
Tracking the Rhein
Yesterday's
action follows on from last week when our team in Australia painted
the hull of the Rhein in Brisbane with the demand to 'Stop GE
Imports'.
"Imported soya is the largest source of GE contamination of the
Australian food chain," said John Hepburn, our GE campaign
co-ordinator in Australia. "In Brisbane last week this shipment was
exposed as part of the unlabelled GE trade that sneaks into
Australia each year. Now we are taking action with the Rainbow
Warrior to stop this shipment from travelling to Melbourne to be
unloaded."
"The poultry industry is the backbone of the trade in
genetically engineered soya in Australia and Inghams are the single
largest user of GE. We're sending a clear message to them and the
rest of the Australian poultry industry that the public will not
tolerate unlabelled GE in our food."
He added: "Most Australians would be shocked to know that their
Sunday roast and barbeque chickens have been fed GE. We will
continue to take action around the world to keep GE out of our food
and our fields."
We will continue to take action to highlight Inghams use of GE
feed until the company joins the many other Australian food
companies that have responded to environmental and community
concerns by halting the use of GE food and feed.
Greenpeace in global GE blitz
Elsewhere, we have launched global oppostion to GE products by
land, sea, and supermarket:
China: April 26th,
Seventy-eight food brands announced they are now officially
committed to not selling genetically engineered (GE) food in China
over the week end. These non-GE brands are listed in the Shoppers'
Guide to Avoiding GE Food , which was launched by Greenpeace on
Sunday. The announcement marks increasing market rejection of GE
food in the world's largest food market.Consumer
Power
Luxemberg, European Union: April 26th, Although 20
Greenpeace activists presented EU Agriculture Ministers in
Luxembourg with the clear message that: "Europe says No to GMOs"
the EU Agriculture Council decided not to block the approval of
genetically engineered sweet corn Bt-11
maize imports for human consumption.
Paranagua, Brazil:
April 26th, News from local activities, including educating
chinese sailors about the dangers of GE from Kishi our onboard
webeditor.