Anti-GM crusade enters supermarket

Bombardment of consumers with messages about the food they eat took on a new dimension yesterday as Genetic Concern brought its anti-GM food crusade to supermarket aisles.

Eco-shoppers fired by a wish to find health-inducing food probably need an extra trolley to negotiate supermarkets safely these days. To facilitate informed product selection, a lap-top computer feeding out the latest scientific opinion; compendiums on how to read food labels and interpret EU food law, and a large magnifying glass to read the minutiae found in awkward spots on the back of packaging would prove useful. A well-informed nutritionist and a risk evaluator might come in handy, too.

Ms Sadhbh O'Neill, of Genetic Concern, came armed with a large magnifying glass and two slim volumes for those wishing to pursue the nigh impossible task these days of GM-free shopping, as she led Superquinn customers around its Blackrock outlet in Dublin. It was called an information tour for those who may harbour reservations about the fruits of genetic engineering.

Superquinn's nutritionist, Ms Paula Mee, said it was not endorsing GM foods but facilitating debate on an issue needing much more airing. But the tour left question marks hanging over a multiplicity of products - many not even foods - rather than acting as a beacon on their origin. Neither Superquinn nor Genetic Concern could be blamed for a blatant lack of labelling, which was "distinctly consumer-unfriendly". Superquinn plans to remove all GM ingredients from its own brand product lines and to be able to show which produce is guaranteed GM-free within 18 months.

Suggestions by Genetic Concern of dubious origin (a potential link to a GM crop) were rife. Even the cotton bud could soon find itself ostracised by the environmental group, should it prove to come from a GM source. Producing cotton is a dirty business, requiring many pesticides and chemicals, even more so with GM cotton, we were told. Moreover, GM crop production was "unnatural", an extension of intensive farming that is heavily reliant on chemicals - yet more than a few cotton farmers in the US would probably bet their last pair of cotton-rich denim jeans that GM varieties lead to less pesticide use.

There was not a single perceived benefit from any GM food, or non-food item possibly linked to gene technology, in Genetic Concern's book. Mr Shane Morris, of Young Fine Gael, said such tours could not be considered factual or "democracy in action".

But what is the understandably worried consumer to do with such uncertainty? Ms O'Neill said Genetic Concern felt "very strongly" it had to be consistent in raising all of its concerns. "The environmental impact is the same, regardless of the end use (of a GM crop)," she declared.

The GM tourist groups were small, so as not to congest the aisles as shoppers hurried to do their usual business. Some abandoned their shopping to listen.

Stops included the organic fruit/ vegetable stall and the organic meat fridge. and eye-brows were raised. The magnifying glass was most assiduously used to decipher labels on ready-to-eat meals. An array of ingredients were "possibly GM"; oils, lecithins, starch, even some additives. "If you want to avoid GM foods, I'm afraid, you have to avoid all those derivatives."

Those who spoke to The Irish Times, felt the exercise worthwhile in the face of so much confusion.

An unusual step was taken as a supermarket group allowed an anti-GM food group make its position clear among its aisles.

That is not to say the business of interpreting the mountain of information that goes with shopping nowadays was made any easier.