An activist with the GM milk
11 June 2004
Supermarket giant Sainsbury's has announced it is to trial a new range of GM-free milk following our campaign. We've been targeting the company because it's own-brand milk comes from cows fed on GM. The trial will see a new GM-free range tested in stores from the end of June. Following this, Sainsbury's will look at "expanding the supply if customers demand it."
While we welcome this news - it's a step in the right direction and proves that all supermarkets can ditch non-GM milk for very little extra cost - Sainsbury's have still not committed to going non-GM in all their milk or to give dairy farmers a fairer price for their milk. Until they do the Greenpeace herd will continue to target them.
The trial will take place at 105 Sainsbury's stores in in London, the South East and South West lasting for 12 weeks.
The selected stores will be supplied by 1 dairy company using a designated non-GM milk supply system. The non-GM milk will be clearly labelled on the lid and bottle and only 1 type of non-GM milk will be available, "Selected Farm Semi-Skimmed Pasteurised Milk."
The non-GM milk will sell for 63p per 2 pints although Sainsbury's standard GM milk sells for 58p per 2 pints. Sainsbury's claim the extra 5p for non-GM milk is to cover the extra costs of buying non-GM feed and maintaining purity.
Dairy farmers supplying the trial will have all these extra costs covered by the 5p customers must pay for non-GM milk although the farmers will not make any extra profit. Sainsbury's and their dairy supplier have not made a commitment to pay farmers a fairer price for their milk.
A new report released last month 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.
Last month as protest saw dozens of Greenpeace pantomime cows invading the Sainsbury's HQ in Holborn, while Greenpeace volunteers dumped a thousand pints of Sainsbury's own-brand milk onto the pavement outside. Sainsbury's stores up and down the country have also been invaded by the cows in recent weeks, and activists have conducted milk exchanges outside scores of Sainsbury's stores, where customers are given the chance to exchange GM milk for the organic alternative free of charge.
