Three major UK supermarkets have quietly backtracked on their standards. The Co-operative, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer have all decided to drop their long-held ban on chickens fed with genetically modified soya beans.
Since these three giants make a selling point of being relatively ethical, this is a huge step backwards, apparently in response to pressure from the enormously powerful GM lobby.
The environmental and health implications of genetically modified crops are not fully understood, certainly not well enough for such foods to be classed as “harmless”. There is also the risk that relaxing bans on GM crops opens the door for GM animals, which has even wider ethical implications since you are now adding animal welfare into the equation.
Consumers don’t want GM foods, and this decision provides them with even less choice.
Tell these supposedly ethical supermarket giants not to relax their standards.
We the undersigned wish to express our enormous disappointment that The Co-operative, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer have decided to drop the ban on poultry fed with genetically modified crops.
One of the reasons we shop at these supermarkets rather than their competitors is because of their stances on key social and environmental issues, including the use of genetically modified crops.
Dropping standards and providing consumers with even less choice is not something we expect these supermarkets to do. With social responsibility being one of their main selling points, we would expect increasingly high ethical standards, not caving in to corporate interests.
Please rethink this badly thought-out plan and retain your decades-old ban on poultry fed with genetically modified crops.
Thank you for your attention.
