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Pantomime cows, handcuffs and irate Sainsbury's managers.

Pantomime cows, handcuffs and irate Sainsbury's managers. | 10.07.2004 18:09 | Ecology | London | Oxford

Non-GM cup of tea anyone?

Pantomime cows, handcuffs and irate Sainsbury's managers.

A large scale direct action protest hit Swansea Sainsburys supermarket today. Anti-Genetic engineering activists dressed as cows handcuffed themselves to the milk area inside the store and to the doors.Sainsbury's manager became irate but was calmed down by the arrival of a dozen police officers.

While pantomime cows did a dance for the media outside while swansea shoppers were asked to sign Greenpeace petitions against GM milk. In a shocking report, there's every chance the milk in your tea is not GM-free if you buy at Sainsburys. GM is sneaking into milk because dairy herds in the UK are fed on GM crops imported from the USA.

A cameraperson from Undercurrents News Network was threathened with arrest for daring to record the protest but he continued to get the story claiming that it was in the public interest. Police grabbed his camera leaving greasy fingerprints across the lens.

A spokesperson for undercurrents said,
"Police should realise that this is an issue which the public feel strongly about. Welsh and the other people of Britain don't want dairy herds to be fed on GM. A poll run in August 2003 found that 77% of people would prefer to eat or buy dairy, meat or fish products fed on a non-GM diet. If the mainstream media won't put the spotlight on these supermarkets, then it was to be up to the alternative media to raise the issues amongst the Swansea public."

Supermarkets are on a slippery slope backwards when it comes to GM. They're saying that because customers no longer raise the issue, it's okay for them to undo their past no-GM policies, starting with GM animal feed.

One activist said
"This is not acceptable. Sainsbury's claims it can't take GM out of milk products - but M&S already have! We believe Sainsbury's should commit to going non-GM on animal feed.

A new report released last week showed that milk producers could go GM-free at no cost to consumers or dairy farmers. The added cost of less than 1p per litre could be easily absorbed by retailers, whose huge mark-ups on dairy lines could comfortably accommodate the switch..

Sainsbury's refuse to comment on the protest or the issues raised.


Pantomime cows, handcuffs and irate Sainsbury's managers.
- Homepage: http://www.undercurrents.org

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

er...

10.07.2004 19:03

It's better to buy organic milk from your local wholefood shop.

Failing that buy it in the Co-op there stuff is GM free too.

We don't really want to encourage people to M&S.

milk churn


or...

10.07.2004 21:06

Drink organic soya milk. It is better for you than normal milk.

fredrico
mail e-mail: musteatvegan@yahoo.co.uk


Single issue politcs?!

10.07.2004 21:36

o-oh...something tells me this is becoming somewhat single issue in its focus.

hope I'm wrong...

whateva you do don't promote M&S there are plenty of people out there raising awareness about their unethical support for Israel and its illegal occupation of Palestine.
And as for promoting sainsburys as somewhere to shop for anything - wake the fuck up!

who gives a fuck about sainsburys?


worthy comments

11.07.2004 14:19

I could make points about the impact of soya monocultures or tetrapacks - but then, when anything which isn't against everything, "global capitalism" or whatever you wan't to call it, it gets worthily criticised as single issue politics - oh what a bad taste in my mouth, I'd prefer to always protest against it all, to always say I'm against everything, and to hop from summit to summit (where the decisions have already been made in any case), or to otherwise ideologise myself out of my ability to feel powerful to try to change things!
Try to understand that some people choose to prioritise - either around an issue for the issues sake, or around an issue which they think will have the best chance of fucking up the system we're against. Don't presume that when people way "no GM", "no more roads" etc, they're not aware of how it's all connected. When people choose to put pressure on one target such as Sainsbury's, it's not from wanting to shop there, or wanting people to go to M&S instead!! GM-animal feed is the last remaining market for GM over here. It's the thing that huge quantities of GM farmers in North America rely on for profits, it's what the whole industry relies on. Stop it, and we kick the GM industry from it's knees, to the floor. And you know how the government/capitalism/etc loves GM, relies on it for economic 'progress'... Now put the connections together about how everything is connected - get down of your worthy horse and take direct action. Fuck shit up.

@ all-rounder


broaden your focus then!

12.07.2004 08:28

Hello?! I didn't say it was purely orientated around single issue politics I just said it's focus seems to be narrowing around just Sainsburys. Everyone can see the links with GM - and FWIW I applaud the direct actions at the distribution depots. It just appears from the reports that the focus seems to have narrowed around doing stuff around the stores. What about the farmers that are using GM? What about the distribution of that grain?
And what about the cling film wrapped pieces of cow that used to provide your precious milk?
There's gotta more to all this than just banging on about Sainsburys stocking GM fed milk. If we don't reflect on things critically how can we move on?

See the wood for the trees


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