Sainsbury's in Lancaster saw local people leafleting shoppers about GM Animal feed - chilled goods shelves virtualy empty - meat on sale (almost) past it's best before
Last Saturday (3.7.04) saw local people leaflet the lancaster sainsbury's store for the 10th time in three months.
What was different this time was that staff were keen to take leaflets (previously they'd refused to take any), and the manager actually listened to why we were stood outside his store (previously not shown any interest in why we were there, only what he could do to stop us coming in).
Staff must have know something was up, because they were scurrying round trying to make the chilled goods shelves look full. On Fri they were moving goods forward, and by sat they'd given up on that, preferring to leave some chiller cabinets completely empty in order to try to make others look stocked. Even the stocked shelves only had products three or four rows deep. Milk was mainly from Wiseman's Dairy, rather than Sainsbury's own, and they were displaying meat (50% off!) with a best before date of that day - they must have raided the skips to fill the shelves!
The manager was very put out by the suggestion that Sainsbury's were selling milk from cows not fed on GM products - he'd not heard anything about it at all. We pointed out that this proves Sainsbury's can do it if they want to, and that it's no good hiding the new gm-free milk so they can claim later that nobody bought it.
So go and visit your local sainsbury's, have a look to see if they're chilled goods section is still empty, and have a chat with the manager about Sainsbury's new line in milk. their press release: "Sainsbury's to offer customers milk from cows fed on non-gm feed" is on:
http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/media/news_view.cfm?article=409
What was different this time was that staff were keen to take leaflets (previously they'd refused to take any), and the manager actually listened to why we were stood outside his store (previously not shown any interest in why we were there, only what he could do to stop us coming in).
Staff must have know something was up, because they were scurrying round trying to make the chilled goods shelves look full. On Fri they were moving goods forward, and by sat they'd given up on that, preferring to leave some chiller cabinets completely empty in order to try to make others look stocked. Even the stocked shelves only had products three or four rows deep. Milk was mainly from Wiseman's Dairy, rather than Sainsbury's own, and they were displaying meat (50% off!) with a best before date of that day - they must have raided the skips to fill the shelves!
The manager was very put out by the suggestion that Sainsbury's were selling milk from cows not fed on GM products - he'd not heard anything about it at all. We pointed out that this proves Sainsbury's can do it if they want to, and that it's no good hiding the new gm-free milk so they can claim later that nobody bought it.
So go and visit your local sainsbury's, have a look to see if they're chilled goods section is still empty, and have a chat with the manager about Sainsbury's new line in milk. their press release: "Sainsbury's to offer customers milk from cows fed on non-gm feed" is on:
http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/media/news_view.cfm?article=409
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re: "Sainsbury's to offer customers milk from cows fed on non-gm feed"
05.07.2004 16:05
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appears at first glance to be a step in the right direction - but is it?
It does prove that Sainsbury's (like Marks & Spencer and the Co-op) is capable of ending the use of GM feed. But it only a short trial in about 100 of their 400 stores and the milk is retailed at an extra 5p per pint more that GM-fed milk (supposedly to cover their admin costs!). However the farmer gets less than 0.5p more (to cover non-GM feed costs). This means the milk is almost the price of Organic milk - so concerned shoppers will probably buy the Organic instead. Sainsbury's can then falsely claim that there is no demand (even though Marks & Spencer are successfully selling cheaper non-GM milk).
The pricing policy (ie giving farmers effectively nothing) is probably intended to drive a wedge between the small farmers and the activists who have just created a powerful alliance to work together on these issues. That is why we have to keep pressing for fair farmgate prices for all farm produce as well as for a complete end to the use of GM feed. Without small and family farmers (hundreds of whom are driven off the land or commit suicide each year) we will have nothing but corporate monoculture - and all our campaigning for sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, rural communities, local food and animal welfare will have been wasted. Lets not forget that five years ago no GM feed was being used in the UK yet farmers got paid much more for milk and shoppers had to pay less. Non-GM milk should not be a premium product - it should be the norm.
We don't need these PR games, we need Sainsbury's to state a DEADLINE for stopping all use of GM feed (after all they did promise this in 2001!).
MT Gesture