Arnotts crumbles in face of anti-GM action

Leading Australasian biscuit manufacturer Arnotts has reacted to the threat of a consumer demonstration against its products in New Zealand by renewing its commitment to avoid the use of GM ingredients.

New Zealand's People's Moratorium Enforcement Agency (PMEA) had planned to target Arnotts in a National Day of Action on December 13, but called off its plans last Friday, hailing Arnotts' decision as "a great victory for the [anti-] GE movement".

In a statement, Greenpeace Australia-Pacific, characterised the Arnott's decision as a "GE-free Christmas present" for consumers.

"This is great news for Australian shoppers," said Greenpeace's anti-GM campaign coordinator John Hepburn. "The announcement comes just in for shoppers to enjoy GE-free Tim Tams over the Christmas holidays."

Hepburn and PMEA spokesman Lenka Rochford both said the decision showed how effective consumer pressure and direct action could be. "We welcome Arnott's decision and commend them for listening to their customers," Rochford said.

"Since the [NZ] government has done nothing to safeguard New Zealanders from GE contaminated food, it is up to us, the people of Aotearoa, to keep this country GM-free. We will do anything to achieve this. PMEA will continue to advocate the use of non-violent direct action to oppose the contamination of our fields and food."

PMEA's strategy of focusing consumer pressure on a single manufacturer has been successfully exploited by anti-GM groups in the UK and the US. Pro-GM commentators and food-industry representatives have called it the 'wolf pack' strategy: wolf packs hunt reindeer by harrying a herd in relays until a slower or weaker animal drops out, after which the animal becomes the focus of continuing attacks.

Having capitulated to demands by anti-GM groups not to use GM ingredients in their products, large US companies like Gerber and the Starbucks coffee chain have found that, instead of abating the threat of boycotts of their products, they are subjected to increasingly onerous demands from anti-GM activist groups -- in Starbucks' case, a demand that it use only shade-grown coffee beans from developing nations.

Green rating

Arnotts was targeted apparently because of its previous commitment to Greenpeace Australia-Pacific to keep its products free of GM ingredients.

According to Hepburn, the first edition of Greenpeace's True Food Guide gave Arnott's a 'green' rating, on the basis of Arnott's assurance that it had reviewed its ingredient supply chain and declared that it contained no ingredients from GM crops, or from livestock fed on products like GM soy meal and GM maize.

"For the second version of the guide, Arnotts told us they were reviewing their policy, and they came back and a month later and told us they could no longer make the same commitment," Hepburn said.

He said Arnotts' US parent, the Campbell's food corporation, had alerted Arnotts that it had failed to pick up several food products that, although labelled as GM-free, contained GM soy,

"After we had quite extensive discussions with them, they changed their position and said they would no longer be giving a commitment that all their products are GM-free. On that basis, we re-rated them as 'red' for the second edition of the True Food Guide," Hepburn said.

Hepburn said New Zealand's PMEA -- a group that Greenpeace Australia-Pacific had been unaware of -- had subsequently decided to target Arnotts with the aim of forcing the company to reiterate its commitment not to use GM ingredients.

According to a Greenpeace statement, the company formally renewed its commitment in a letter signed by its general manager, Peter West. "We continue to audit all our suppliers to seek to ensure our products contain ingredients derived from non- genetically modified crops," West wrote. "And we have sought, and will continue to seek, assurances from our suppliers of animal-derived products that they not use feed that contains genetically modified material."

PMEA subsequently called off its national day of action against Arnott's Biscuits.

Arnotts' corporate communications manager, Toni Callaghan, said from New Zealand on Friday that the company's decision was based on its acknowledgement of "continuing community concerns" about genetically modified organisms.

Callaghan said the company took the decision of its own accord; it did not have any opinion on whether GM ingredients did, or did not, pose a potential health threat to consumers.

Arnotts no longer used GM soy in its products, and used "identity-preserved" lecithin rather than lecithin from GM grain, she said. "All I can say in terms of animal-derived products is that we go to the best lengths we can to avoid ingredients from animals that may have been fed on GM grain."

Precautionary view

Hepburn said Greenpeace's primary concern was an environmental one. "There is not sufficient evidence to say that GM crops are safe for the environment, so we should take a precautionary view and oppose the release of GM crops.

"There has also been a complete lack of health and safety testing of GM feeds on animals, as well as on GM foods for humans."

Hepburn said Greenpeace had no concerns about the use of GM sub-unit vaccines in poultry or other livestock, or in human medicine.

He said today's announcement followed a series of GE-free announcements from smaller food companies who have been added to the 'green' category of the True Food Guide since its launch in mid September, including Sweet William soy chocolate, Lloyd's juices, Sunny Queen organic eggs, Parmalat pure organic milks, Soy Life, and Lee Kum Kee sauces.

"Over the last year we've seen a real shift in the Australian food industry, with many major brands and most of the dairy industry moving to GE-Free policies. The main problem now is the poultry industry, with companies like Inghams injecting GE ingredients into the food chain through their poultry feed," he said.