Co-op imposes ban on GM ingredients

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Mark Tran
Tuesday October 21, 2003

The Co-op supermarket group, Britain's biggest farmer and the owner of the Co-operative Bank, today imposed a ban on genetically modified ingredients across its businesses.

In a fresh blow to the GM industry, the Co-op said that it would reject any government proposals allowing the commercial planting of GM crops in the UK.

The move follows a Co-op survey, carried out with NOP World, which found that 55% of people were against GM food, with 38% yet to be convinced of its benefits.

"We have listened to the experts on both sides of the debate. We have consulted our customers and members and evaluated available evidence," the Co-op said in a statement.

"But, on the strength of current scientific knowledge, and the overwhelming opposition of our members, the Co-op is saying no to the commercial growing of GM crops in the UK."

The store chain says that Co-op brand foods do not contain any ingredients or additives from GM sources.

It adds that its policy is to eliminate GM crops from the diets of animals reared for Co-op brand products at no extra cost to its customers.

The Co-op, which sells �5bn of food each year, farms 85,000 acres, 28,000 of which are its own, and the remainder for other landowners. Animals on Co-op farms are reared on diets free from GM feed.

Its decision to impose a ban represents another setback for the GM industry.

Last week, the results of a three-year trial of GM varieties of oil seed rape and sugar beet showed that the crops damaged wildlife and would have a serious long-term effect on bee, butterfly and bird populations.

The results, after the largest field study undertaken, provided a legal basis for banning the two crops under EU rules which say that either health or environmental detriment must be proved.

Last week also brought the news that Monsanto, the world's largest GM seed company, was pulling out of the European cereal business.

In a surprise move, the US pioneer of GM confirmed that it will close its European cereal business headquarters, which employs 125 people, at Trumpington, Cambridgeshire.

The decision followed the failure to introduce genetically modified hybrid wheat to Europe, and the company has decided to cut costs.

The Co-op is not the first company to reject GM products. Tesco, the UK's leading supermarket chain, no longer sells meat from animals that have been raised on GM feeds, while Iceland removed GM ingredients from its own-label products in 1998.

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