Greenpeace plans bacon boycott

5 October 2001



Greenpeace plans bacon boycott

By Adrienne Francis

GREENPEACE is stepping up its campaign urging the worlds largest pork exporter – Danish Crown – to use non-genetically modified feed.

Demonstrations against Danish Crown, producers of bacon brands Danepak and Tulip were set to be held at supermarkets on Saturday (6 October)

Shoppers would be invited to send postcards and an envelope containing non-GM pig feed to the UK head office of Danish Crown, said organisers.

Greenpeace wants Danish Crown to extend GM-free feed to all its farming operations rather than just a few selected lines.

Danish Crown launched pork products based on GM-free feed earlier this year, starting with a weekly production of 5000-7000 pigs.

But a Greenpeace spokeswoman said she believed that the non-GM pigs represented only about 2% of Danish Crowns total pig production.

“This is a start but its not enough,” she said. “The majority of consumers want to buy animal products fed on non-GM feed.”

The spokeswoman cited a poll last year by the NOP Research which found that 67% of respondents were opposed to farm animals being fed GM soya.

“This campaign is a chance for people to tell Danish Crown to stop feeding their pigs with GM feed and to give GM the boot,” the spokeswoman said.

But John Howard, of the Danish Bacon and Meat Council, accused Greenpeace of quite unfairly taking Danish Crown to task.

“This company has done more for the pig industry than most. We would have expected Greenpeace to welcome the commitment by Danish Crown.”

A study into the production and demand for non GM fed pork is under way.

“There clearly will be extra costs involved in using GM free inputs for bacon production,” Mr Howard warned.

“I dont think that the market has shown sufficient demand [to warrant an increase in] non-GM fed pig products.

• Experts predict GM meat in 10 years, FWi, 21 May 2001
• GM feed survey is simplistic, FWi, 25 September 2000
• GM labelling extended to animal feed, FWi, 17 February, 1999