The UK campaign to get GM out of our food has been really successful. Due to public pressure, supermarkets and food producers have removed GM ingredients from their products and no GM crops will be grown in the UK in the foreseeable future.
However, one loophole remains - GM animal feed. The GM that was going into our food is now being dumped on the animal feed market.
One area is particularly problematic - dairy cow feed.
Every month, thousands of tonnes of GM feed is imported from the US into UK ports like Bristol and fed to the dairy cows that produce milk for all the major supermarkets.
So far however, the only retailer to go non-GM in all of their milk is Marks & Spencer. Co-op are attempting to do the same but haven't got there yet.
Since 2003 we've been targeting Sainsbury's, encouraging them to take the lead and be the first major supermarket to go non-GM in their milk. As a result Sainsbury's are now running a trial of non-GM milk in nearly 200 of their stores.
As part of our campaign, in June 2004 Greenpeace stopped a bulk carrier, the Etoile bound for Bristol with a cargo of GM feed intended for dairy cows. Greenpeace climbers got on board the ship and attached themselves to its sides demanding that the ship turn around and go back to the US. This action delayed the ship's docking for 36 hours at which point the Greenpeace climbers were removed by police.
In autumn 2005 13 people went on trial in Cardiff for the direct action against the Etoile. The trial, at Cardiff Crown Court, lasted two weeks and ended with the acquital of all the defendants, who attacked the trade in GM animal feed from the witness box.
