Date:  23 November 2000

IT'S  NOT  BOOTIFUL  -  IT'S  GENETICALLY  MODIFIED

GREENPEACE  PRESS  RELEASE:

For Immediate Release: 8.30am Thursday 23 November, 2000.

It's Not Bootiful - It's Genetically Modified !
Greenpeace Delivers GM free Turkey Feed to Bernard Matthews

This morning Greenpeace delivered three tonnes of GM free turkey feed to the headquarters of Bernard Matthews.

Despite massive public rejection of GM food (1), GM is still sneaking into the UK and being fed to animals. Bernard Matthews is one of a number of top UK food companies which continue to use GM animal feed in the production of their food products. These companies claim that it is
impossible to buy GM free animal feed.

Greenpeace Campaigner Andy Tait  explained: "Greenpeace has been trying to talk to Bernard Matthews about environmental and health concerns surrounding GM in animal feed, but he's refused to listen. Bernard Matthews claims it is impossible to find GM free feed. Today's action by
Greenpeace shows that he is wrong".

Major UK supermarkets and food producers are already switching to GM free animal feed. In the last week alone McDonalds and Burger King both announced that they will be GM free next year. Major supermarkets like Iceland have also worked hard to eliminate GM ingredients from animal feed.

Tait continued, "If McDonalds can do it, then any company can. It's time Bernard Matthews stopped feeding us excuses, stopped stuffing his turkeys full of GM feed and gave the public what they want - GM-free food".

The surprise delivery is part of an ongoing campaign by Greenpeace to expose how GM is still being sneaked into our food in the UK. In February, Greenpeace boarded and stopped a ship importing over 500,000 tonnes of GM soya into the UK. Last Monday (20/11/00) over sixty
Greenpeace volunteers, dressed as chickens, shut down the soya processing facility to which this ship had been heading. This one facility, owned by the multinational grain company Cargill, is the main gateway for GM entering the UK. It is responsible for importing and processing most of the GM soya that comes into the country. Cargill also supplies companies like Bernard Matthews with GM soya for turkey feed.

ENDS/EDITOR'S NOTES
Photos and footage of the delivery are available. To receive images or to arrange an interview with a Greenpeace spokesperson call 07801 212993. Alternatively call the Greenpeace Press Office on 0207 865 8255/6/7.

The campaign to persuade Bernard Matthews to go GM free continues this Saturday, when local Greenpeace volunteers will be in Norwich asking the public to register their protests.

No independent studies have ever been completed regarding the risk posed to humans and animals from using GM in animal feed. For more information about GM animal feed visit the Greenpeace website www.greenpeace.org.uk.

(1) An NOP poll conducted for Greenpeace in September this year found that 67% of  Respondents were opposed to farm animals being fed GM soya.