Food and beverage giants commit to GE-free food

  • October 29, 2009
  • Isobel Drake

Launched by celebrated chefs Martin Boetz and Margaret Fulton, and Clover Moore MP, Lord Mayor of Sydney as part of the Sydney International Food Festival, the Greenpeace Truefood Guide rates over one thousand of Australia’s top food and beverage brands for the presence of GE ingredients. Since the release of the first Greenpeace Truefood Guide in 2003, more than half of Australia’s top food brands have committed to non-GE policies, with Foster’s, Nestlé, Schweppes and Lindt now implementing non-GE ingredients policies for their Australian brands.

“The 2010 Truefood Guide is the biggest guide ever, as the Australian food industry answers consumer calls for GE-free food,” Greenpeace GE Campaigner Rochelle Porteous said. “It is the only comprehensive shopping guide that empowers Australians to avoid GE ingredients.”

For the first time, this year’s harvest of Australian GE canola will find its way into foods like pasta sauces, breads, cakes, baby food, oils and margarines, because NSW and Victoria have started commercially growing small amounts of GE canola.

Martin Boetz, one of 180 chefs to sign the GE-free Chef’s Charter, hosted the launch of the Consumer Guide at his Sydney Restaurant Longrain.

“We have no knowledge about the long-term side effects on our bodies and environment from consuming GE food and I do not wish to promote this in my cookery,” Mr Boetz suggested.

Scott Delzoppo, Sustainability Manager of Foster’s group, said the GE-food debate was a complex issue but they were keen to avoid genetically-modified ingredients.
“Foster’s is pleased to clarify that the ingredients used to produce our Australian beer and wine portfolio are non-GE,” he said. “We recognise this area is highly complex and of concern to our consumers and we will continue to work with our suppliers to maintain the highest quality standards and ingredient integrity.”

Greenpeace said it was consumer pressure and lobbying that has so far kept iconic Australian brands like Milo, Uncle Toby’s cereal, VB and Peters Ice Cream free from GE-Ingredients.

“Opinion polls show the majority of consumers don’t want to eat GE food and 90% want it labelled,” Ms Porteous said. “In the coming months Greenpeace will campaign to ensure the recently announced COAG food labelling review protects consumers’ right to chose safe, non-GE food and doesn’t leave Australians eating in the dark.”The issue has been divisive in the food sector, and is likely to be a major source of debate in coming years as people supportive of GM-food – including Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke – argue it could be a key to food security as population growth puts pressure on supplies.


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Reader Comments

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2 Responses to “Food and beverage giants commit to GE-free food”

  1. roma guerin on October 30th, 2009 12:42 pm

    Thank goodness there are people who are in a position to articulate what many of us are so concerned about and get media coverage. I have not even been able to get a conversation going about this where I live, but then they’ve only just caught on to climate change. I am actually more scared of multi-nationals owning the world’s food supply in the future and what that will mean to my grandchildren, the enormity of this just makes my eyeballs spin.

  2. steph fuller on October 30th, 2009 2:17 pm

    I agree with Roma, I am very concerned that multi-nationals can own, and thus control access to world seed supplies. Why is it that this appears to be the way encouraged by politicians and certain farming lobbies, yet in so many European countries, they celebrate the regional differences in food production, dishes, cheeses, wines, fruits, bread types, etc.
    Do we really want a “one size fits all” attitude to food? Variety in food types is what has kept us alive when disease/weather problems have stopped production on one or more food types in the past. GE foods, especially staples like wheat, corn and rice, will make us so vulnerable to future resistant plant diseases. The lack of genetic variety (which happens when selecting suitable GE plants) means that if such a disease arises, the particular plant affected will be virtually wiped out. And seeds available will only provide more of the same vulnerable plant. Don’t believe it will happen?? Our dependence on just a few meat sources was tested a few years ago with mad cow disease (remember that?) and then chicken flu (ah yes that one too!). Although the situations would be different, in the case of staples like rice and corn, such a problem would be devastatiing on a wider scale than for meat. We shouldn’t be trying to make current rice, corn or wheat resistant to weed killer, we should be trying to diversify food supply, there should be a greater variety of grains grown, like more barley, rye, oats, other rices, other seeds and legumes etc.
    Congratulations on the people rejecting GE products. I want to know what I eat and what I am feeding my family, so want the choice to say no to GE foods, and I need accurate food labelling to be able to have that choice.