Dear Budgens,

I am very concerned about GM crops and foods. As such I am disappointed that a survey by Friends of the Earth on supermarkets' animal feed policies has found Budgens "bottom of the pile". It revealed that most of Budgens' own brand animal products like dairy and meat are not produced from animals fed a non-GM diet. I want to avoid GM crops and foods throughout the food chain. But weaknesses in labelling laws mean that it is difficult to avoid foods from animals fed a GM diet because they do not have to be labelled. Furthermore, I am concerned that unless companies like Budgens make it clear to their suppliers that they wish to produce foods, like cheese and milk, from animals fed a non-GM diet, non-GM ingredients for food could become scarce. Most soya is used for animal feed, but the ingredients in many processed foods such as soya lecithin in chocolate are by-products from this animal feed soya. If we don't grow enough non-GM soya for animal feed, then we won't have non-GM soya for food products either. If Budgens doesn't send a strong signal to farmers in Brazil, where most non-GM soya is grown, that it wants non-GM soya for animal feed, there will be nothing to stop farmers switching to growing GM soya, which is being heavily promoted by the GM industry. This will have a serious impact on the availability of non-GM soya ingredients for our food. Looking to the long term I also believe that supermarkets must do more to make sure that the soya that ends up in their food chains does not come from areas where communities have been driven off their land or where forests and other habitats have been cleared. It is crucial that Budgens plays a key part in finding solutions to reducing our dependence on soya, such as supporting British farmers to grow animal feed on their own land. I want to see Budgens strengthen its policy so that it eliminates the use of GM animal feed in the production of all its own brand foods. What steps is Budgens taking to phase out the use of GM animal feed to secure a non-GM food supply? And in the meantime, how is Budgens planning to inform its customers about which of its foods come from non-GM fed animals so they can make a choice about what they buy?

You can contact me by email (preferably - to save resources) or at the following address:

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Friends of the Earth is a collective name for Friends of the Earth Trust, registered charity 281681, company number 1533942, and Friends of the Earth Limited, company number 1012357, both of which may use the above information. In both cases the registered office is at 26-28 Underwood Street, London, N1  7JQ.