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GE - Groundbreaking 'people's ultimatum' GM protest march in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

CALLING ALL THOSE ACROSS THE GLOBE WHO WISH TO SEE AN END TO GM FOODS!!!!
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We are grateful to Lyn Searby (Gloucestershire natural foods retailer) and
Henry Brighouse (Natural Law Party, Stroud and Cotswold) for providing
details of this important anti-GM food action.   Lyn and Henry are the
co-founders
of the "Stroud Campaign for Safe Food", who, as one of the first groups of
its kind in the UK, have been campaigning since 1996 against
genetically modified food.

This work has now culminated in the groundbreaking anti-GM food march and
presentation of a people's ultimatum to local food retailers which will take
place in Stroud tomorrow morning (6 March 1999) .

This initiative is remarkable for the way it has brought together hundreds
of concerned individuals and local groups in such a dynamic and effective
fashion.

It demonstrates what can be achieved at the local level as
national governments across the globe fail to meet their obligations to
protect the health of their citizens and environment against the
introduction of this irresponsible so-called 'science' and its associated
'technologies'.

It is anticipated that Saturday's groundbreaking march will receive national
media attention in the UK.

THIS ACTION CAN EASILY BE REPLICATED IN EVERY LOCALITY ACROSS THE GLOBE.

PLEASE JOIN TOGETHER WITH YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO REPEAT IT IN YOUR OWN
AREA WHICHEVER COUNTRY YOU HAPPEN TO BE IN WHEN YOU RECEIVE THIS MESSAGE
(WHICH
IS BEING FORWARDED TO CONCERNED GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS ON ALL CONTINENTS).

PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE ON AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE.

At the end of the press release below is a full copy of the Stroud group's
campaign statement which is suitable (with appropriate adjustments) for use
in similar local GM actions throughout world.

We are also pleased to include a copy of Henry Brighouse's own personal
statement. Copies of all participating bodies statements will be available
shortly
from the Stroud group who can be contacted via Trevor Searby at
watertalks@cwcom.net .

For more information on the dangers of genetically modified foods and crops
please visit our web site at the address below.

NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@bigfoot.com
<http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex>www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex

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PRESS RELEASE

CAMPAIGNERS AGAINST GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS DELIVER ULTIMATUM TO
SUPERMARKETS IN STROUD. GLOS.   SATURDAY 6TH MARCH 1999.

Hundreds of people are expected to turn out today for the Stroud Campaign
for Safe Food march to five supermarkets in the town to deliver a document
supported by numerous individuals and organisations in the area.

The document is calling for a boycott of all processed foods on supermarket
shelves with a recommendation that consumers return to home-cooking using
natural ingredients until supermarkets can guarantee their products to be
from non-GM sources.

The march is expected to attract mainstream media coverage and the
organisers hope that the initiative will be taken up throughout the
country.

Co-founder of the group Lyn Searby of Mother Nature Foodshop said, "The
Stroud Campaign for Safe Food has been running for two and a half years. The
shift in consciousness to more natural lifestyles, is in sharp contrast to
the Government’s ‘out of touch’ policy of promoting biotechnology and GMOs.
A huge groundswell of public opinion is starting to take shape, exercising
consumer power to challenge the might of the multinationals".

The march will conclude with a public reading of the statement, by Henry
Brighouse
(Natural Law Party); a reply from David Drew (Labour MP for Stroud); a
presentation from the Marchioness of Worcester to the local manager of the
Iceland chain for their stand on GMOs, and closing comments by the Mayor of
Stroud, John Marjoram (Green Party)

So far, statements of support  for the document had been
received from:

Gloucestershire Bio-diversity Partnership in association with the Wildlife
Trust
Greenpeace
Natural Law Party
Green Party
Stroud Beekeepers Association
The Acorn School
Stroud Sixth Formers (302 signatures).
Painswick Inn Project
Mother Nature Foodshop
Stroud Natural Health Clinic
Gloucestershire Organic Gardening Group
The Green Shop
Kolisko Farm and Farm Shop
Woodruffs Organic Café
Good Gardeners Association

Itinerary:
10.30 am: Top of Stroud High St, march begins visiting Tesco, Coop,
Sainsbury, Somerfield.
12.30 pm: Statements to be made on the forecourt of the Stroud Subscription
Rooms.
12.55 pm: visit Waitrose.
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THE STROUD DOCUMENT ON GMOS - MARCH 1999

Supermarkets stand nearest to the consumer in the food chain. They have the
power to choose what to put on their shelves. Given the wide range of
possible dangers posed by GMOs (genetically modified organisms)  to health
and the environment, supermarkets (excepting the Iceland chain) are failing
in their moral duty to their
customers.

They force the consumers to exercise their powers of discrimination in order
to avoid
all processed food containing soya and soya derivatives, ie soya oil,
vegetable oil and fat, flour improvers, lecithin, soya flour, soya
protein.....; maize and maize
derivatives, ie  corn flakes, corn chips, corn starch, corn oil....; rennet
in cheese and tomato paste.  Many additives are also suspect.

The Stroud Campaign for Safe Food is recommending a boycott of all processed
foods currently on supermarket shelves, 80% of which now contain some gm
ingredients. This means a
healthy return to home cooking, using basic ingredients, until processed
foods
can be guaranteed to be derived from non-GM identity preserved sources, as
they are in the Iceland chain, the only supermarket to guarantee ingredients
in all own brand products to be derived from non-gm identity preserved
sources (ie they know where they were grown).

Danger to Health

GMOs are introducing an entirely unknown risk into the food chain on a
massive scale without proper testing. These risks
include increased antibiotic resistance, allergic reactions, toxic build up
and a breakdown of the immune system.

Unnatural Science

Genetic engineering is fundamentally different from traditional cross
breeding, which takes place within single species, or near relations, of
plant or animal.

Genetic engineering cuts through all of nature’s safety barriers at a stroke
e.g inserting fish or insect genes into a tomato. The technology is limited
only by
the imagination of the scientist in his laboratory (hence the name
Frankenstein food).

The complexity of the DNA is not fully understood by scientists. Forcing
unnatural genetic changes at this most basic level of nature destabilises
the holistic functioning of the DNA leading to unpredictability in the life-
cycle of the organism, weakening the plants (or animals) and polluting the
genetic
information passed on to all future generations. This genetic pollution
cannot be
cleaned up.  It will be the legacy we leave behind for the future.

Inadequate Safety Testing

Because GMOs are unstable, they can produce unexpected toxins and
allergens, dangerous to humans, animals and the environment.

The current policy of "substantial equivalence" testing, which measures only
the known components of a natural organism against the GM version, is wholly
inadequate as the unexpected is not what is being looked for.

If the government applied adequate safety testing, the whole technology
would have to be abandoned as entirely uneconomical, but the government is
not prepared to embark on such safety measures.

Control of the Food Chain

GMO patents and World Trade Organisation protection are putting the whole
food chain into the control of a few giant chemical/biotech companies who
have a long track record of environmental
irresponsibility for the sake of profit alone. (See Ecologist Magazine
"Monsanto Files" October 98.)

Government  ‘Out of Touch’

Government Ministers are either concealing the truth for undisclosed
reasons,
ignorant about the facts concerning GM technology and its risks, or helpless
to control it, and so they are promoting it (classic example - Jack
Cunningham on the Radio 4 Today Programme). On this issue the Prime Minister
imagines he is bravely confronting a stampede of ignorant protestors. In
fact, the "stampede" he refers to comprises a huge ground-swell of well
informed citizens all heading in the opposite direction, leaving him
increasingly isolated.  We invite him to have a change of heart and
re-establish our confidence and support. Have we not learnt from  previous
food scares ­ BSE, Salmonella in eggs?

Danger to Environment

GMOs seriously threaten biodiversity on the planet through dangers of
cross-pollination (already happening),  through increasing reliance on vast
mono-cultures in
previously richly diverse areas (accelerating the destruction of small
farming communities in
developing countries),  and through increased use of broad spectrum
herbicidal chemical
sprays.

The rich biodiversity of plants, animals and insects in different areas of
the planet has taken billions of years to develop. The survival of the human
species is intimately connected to the balance in nature, which this
biodiversity represents.
At this critical time, rather than further destroying the balance in nature,
science should be seeking
to gain a closer harmony with nature and its holistic functioning. Support
of natural law is the best insurance
for the future.

Denial of Choice

The sudden all pervasivness of GMO ingredients, especially Soya and maize in
the
food chain, is removing the choice of consumers as to what we eat and how it
is produced. It is denying the fundamental right of freedom of choice.

Our Farmers at Risk

GMOs will remove the freedom of farmers to choose what they grow and how
they grow it, even denying them the right to save their own seed, a practice
which has been at the heart of farming since the beginning of time.
Farmers in America who are tied into binding contracts with the giant
biotech companies are already being sued for small contract breaches.
Pinkerton detectives are even being used to make spot checks and surprise
visits to check up on farmers.

The law is being used to intimidate the farmer and curtail his traditional
freedoms.

Disputes are also arising increasingly between farmers growing GM crops and
their
neighbours, especially organic farmers, because of the contamination caused
by cross-pollination i.e. GM pollen carried by birds, insects and wind.
GMO test sites in Britain are already posing a serious environmental
threat and pollen is being carried over far greater distances than safety
measures have allowed for.

Biotech companies who find crops with their patented GM plants growing among
them
(which could well have been carried through cross-pollination) instead of
paying compensation
to the farmer for contaminating his crops are likely to claim property
rights over the affected plants.
This is already happening in America.

Farmers and the community

Farmers are invited to re-integrate with their communities, setting up farm
shops and farmers' markets
to sell local, preferably organically grown, healthy produce.

The future?

Think of the world you would like to see in twenty years time and start
creating it now!

(PLEASE MAKE COPIES AND DISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE)

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STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR THE STROUD DOCUMENT ON GMOS
From: Henry Brighouse on behalf of the Stroud and Cotswold Natural Law Party

The Natural Law Party is campaigning in 80 countries for a total ban on
GMOs.

The fact that an action taken by a few people can spoil the food for the
whole human race, not just now, but for all generations to come, shows a
profound
lack of integrity in world consciousness.

The primary concern of the Natural Law Party is to create a positive,
integrated consciousness in the individual, in every nation and in the world
as a
whole, through time-tested and well researched means, so that such dangers
do not arise.

The Natural Law Party is promoting with all speed Maharishi's Vedic
Technologies of Consciousness to eliminate dullness and inertia in society
and bring life
spontaneously in alliance with Natural Law.
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