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Unilever Boss
15 January 2002
Press Release
Friends of the Earth have 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.
Pete Riley Senior Real Food Campaigner said:
"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.
When labelling came in after pressure from environmentalists and others, Unilever's own customers rejected GM contents by boycotting products, which were then hastily withdrawn.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 onto a sceptical public.
Mr Fitzgerald's notion that the current GM farm scale trials are a "full scientific appraisal"has already been rejected by the Government's own Agriculture, Environment and Biotech Commission last year, which said that the results could not be the basis for full commercial approval".
ENDS
Unilever chairman Niall FitzGerald delivers the annual City Food Lecture, sponsored by Sainsbury's, at The Guildhall, London, this evening, Tuesday January 15, 2002.
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jun 2008
