GREENPEACE ECO-CHICKENS - latest
Immediate release: 12.20 pm, Tuesday, 21 November, 2000
Eco-Chickens come down from their perch
Greenpeace climbers involved in the Eco-Chicken invasion of the Cargill
GM soya factory in Liverpool Docks yesterday were served with an injunction
this morning ordering them to leave. The climbers are now complying with
this injunction and have descended from their perch in
order to leave the premises.
The climbers were part of a team of 60 Greenpeace volunteers who invaded
the Cargill plant yesterday. The other volunteers, dressed in chicken
costumes, were ejected yesterday with eight arrests. Four chickens
were charged with aggravated trespass after locking themselves onto a
conveyor belt that carries GM soya for processing. They
will appear at Sefton Magistrates court tomorrow (Wednesday 22 November
at 13.45). The other four have been bailed to appear on 2 February
2001.
The climb team of three men and one woman remained overnight in a Portaledge (a climber's tent) suspended from the soya conveyor belt 40 metres above the ground. They had intended to remain in place several days, until supplies ran out, in order to prevent GM soya being processed.
Chris Holden, a biochemistry graduate who is one of the climb team,
said: "It has been a long cold night but we are disappointed to have
to leave. No one wants GM being sneaked into food and we are committed
to ending these GM imports by Cargill. Most of this soya is destined
for animal
feed. The public can stop these imports permanently by demanding
that supermarkets, such as Tesco, Asda and Safeway now act to ensure that
the meat, dairy and eggs they sell are not from animals fed on GM.
The Greenpeace campaign will continue."
Charlie Kronick, chief GM campaigner with Greenpeace, said: "Cargill
claims that it is only supplying what customers want, but this is simply
wrong. All the costs of segregating GM from non-GM have been added to the
price of GM-free soya - effectively penalising customers
which want GM-free food. We already know that a huge majority of the
British public and most supermarket chains want meat, milk and eggs which
are totally GM-free, so it's time Cargill wised up and stopped hiding behind
claims about customer choice."
Greenpeace has produced a consumer guide to non-GM chickens and eggs which will shortly be available on its website (www.greenpeace.org.uk). A guide to GM-free turkeys will be available later this week, just in time for Christmas.
CONTACT: 07801 212 993 0207 865 8255/6/7
Almut Ibler, Press Office Organiser, Greenpeace UK 020 7 8658257
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk
Check out if there's GM inside your shopping basket at
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/gm.htm
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Anyone who was put off reading the whole of the recently posted Claire
Robinson 'organic backlash' article by the formatting, can now access it
at: http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/129.htm
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