Unilever boss weak on GM history15 January 2002
Friends of the Earth has responded to Unilever boss Niall Fitzgerald's speech on the future of the UK food industry, by saying that he has a "weak" grasp of the debate about GM food and crops in Europe.
"Mr Fitzgerald should make sure that he is better briefed in future. He welcomes the understandable questions about the effects of GM crops on the environment and on people's health. But he conveniently forgets that many GM products were already on supermarket shelves - unlabelled - before most consumers were even aware of them," said Friends of the Earth Real Food Campaigner, Pete Riley.
"When labelling came in after pressure from environmentalists and others, Uniliver's own customers rejected GM contents by boycotting products, which were then hastily withdrawn. The time to debate a new food technology is before commercial production. Companies like Unilever would do well to pay more attention to their customers before trying to force new products on to a sceptical public," added Riley.
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