Overwhelming demand for meat fed on non-GM diet
Greenpeace has consistently argued that genetically modified (GM) crops should not be released into the environment, and since 1996 that they should not be introduced into the food chain. This view is shared by much of the British public. GM ingredients have been removed from most human food products; now attention is turning to the feeding of GM crops to animals.
Polls by the major supermarkets have shown clearly that consumers do not want animals to be fed GM diets:
- January 2001 - Tesco polling confirms that 76% of their customers want dairy and meat products from non-GM fed animals.
- January 2001 - Asda polling confirms that 64% of their customers want dairy and meat products from non-GM fed animals.
It is this strong body of public opinion to which retailers have sought to respond. Tesco and Asda (Britain's largest and third largest supermarkets) announced in January 2001 that from June 2001, they would only sell own-brand poultry meat and pork which has been raised on non-GM diets. Since then, Sainsbury and Safeway (Britain's second and fourth largest retailers) have told Greenpeace that from June their own-brand chicken meat will also all have been produced using non-GM feed. The rest of the market is certain to follow these moves.
It is also likely that branded meat producers will follow, and that the non-GM feed moves will gradually be extended to other animal products (eg pork, beef and dairy).
