Greenpeace climbers involved in the Eco-Chicken invasion of the Cargill GM soya factory in Liverpool Docks yesterday were served with an injunction this morning ordering them to leave. The climbers are now complying with this injunction and have descended from their perch in order to leave the premises.
The climbers were part of a team of 60 Greenpeace volunteers who invaded the Cargill plant yesterday. The other volunteers, dressed in chicken costumes, were ejected yesterday with eight arrests. Four chickens were charged with aggravated trespass after locking themselves onto a conveyor belt that carries GM soya for processing. They will appear at Sefton Magistrates court tomorrow (Wednesday 22 November at 13.45). The other four have been bailed to appear on 2 February 2001. The climb team of three men and one woman remained overnight in a Portaledge (a climber's tent) suspended from the soya conveyor belt 40 metres above the ground. They had intended to remain in place several days, until supplies ran out, in order to prevent GM soya being processed.
Chris Holden, a biochemistry graduate who is one of the climb team, said: "It has been a long cold night but we are disappointed to have to leave. No one wants GM being sneaked into food and we are committed to ending these GM imports by Cargill. Most of this soya is destined for animal feed. The public can stop these imports permanently by demanding that supermarkets, such as Tesco, Asda and Safeway now act to ensure that the meat, dairy and eggs they sell are not from animals fed on GM. The Greenpeace campaign will continue."
Charlie Kronick, chief GM campaigner with Greenpeace, said: "Cargill claims that it is only supplying what customers want, but this is simply wrong. All the costs of segregating GM from non-GM have been added to the price of GM-free soya - effectively penalising customers which want GM-free food. We already know that a huge majority of the British public and most supermarket chains want meat, milk and eggs which are totally GM-free, so it's time Cargill wised up and stopped hiding behind claims about customer choice."
Greenpeace has produced a consumer guide to non-GM chickens and eggs which will shortly be available on the website. A guide to GM-free turkeys will be available later this week, just in time for Christmas.
