cargill

At 8.00 am this morning (Monday 20 November) sixty Greenpeace volunteers dressed as pantomime chickens invaded and shut down the UK's only GM soya mill. The invasion comes only days after fast food chain McDonalds announced that it was to ban meat from animals fed on GM.

Five Greenpeace volunteers were arrested at 1am this morning (Saturday) after successfully occupying the bulk carrier 'Ioclos Grace' for seventeen hours. The vessel carrying 60,000 tonnes of GM soya owned by US grain exporter Cargill, is bound for a processing mill at Gladstone Docks, Liverpool. The ship is currently anchored off the north coast of Wales.

Police used bolt cutters to remove three of the volunteers who had barricaded themselves into the anchor chain locker. The five volunteers, all from the UK are Kate Davison, Richard Watson, Al Baker, Amber Whitehouse and Andy Broadley.

Greenpeace today, successfully intercepted and is still occupying after 12 hours, the bulk carrier 'Iolcos Grace', which is carrying up to sixty thousand tonnes of genetically modified soya into Britain.

US grain exporter Cargill, who owns the cargo has said today that "genetically modified soyabeans are fully regulated and have been approved for safe use in food and feed in the UK and the rest of the EU since 1996."

At 7.40am, Greenpeace successfully intercepted the bulk carrier Iolcos Grace believed to be carrying up to sixty thousand tonnes of genetically modified soya into Britain. The vessel was boarded by Greenpeace volunteers off the coast of Anglesey in North Wales. Six Greenpeace volunteers are still in position on the vessel, preventing further movement, while the organisation attempts to persuade the owners of the cargo - the US agribusiness giant Cargill - to return the GM soya to the United States.

The action by Greenpeace is part of a campaign to prevent genetically modified crops from being imported into the UK. The GM soya will mostly be used for animal feed, which will end up in meat and dairy products for human consumption. The recent agreement of the Biosafety Protocol in Montreal last month means that governments can now refuse to accept imports of GM crops on the basis of the 'precautionary principle'. Greenpeace calls for an end to GM imports because of uncertainties over the effects of GM materials on human health and the environment.

The action by Greenpeace is part of a campaign to prevent genetically modified crops from being imported into the UK. The GM soya will mostly be used for animal feed, which will end up in meat and dairy products for human consumption. The recent agreement of the Biosafety Protocol in Montreal last month means that governments can now refuse to accept imports of GM crops on the basis of the 'precautionary principle'. Greenpeace calls for an end to GM imports because of uncertainties over the effects of GM materials on human health and the environment.

Major supermarket chains in the UK are already going GM-free and rejecting animal products fed on GM crops. This week Iceland announced that it would be selling only GM-free animal products from September 1 s t . Other supermarkets like Tesco have also announced their intention remove GM animal feed from their products. Yesterday Carrefour, the second largest supermarket chain in the world, also announced that it is excluding GM animal feed from all its meat products in response to customer concerns.