Nearly all the milk, dairy products and pork in the UK supermarkets are being produced from animals fed on GM (Genetically Modified) crops, and none of this is labelled, according to a Soil Association investigation. Tests of animal feed and a survey of company policies have revealed that all the supermarkets are widely allowing the use of GM feed. The report found that around 60% of the maize and 30% of the soya fed to dairy cattle and pigs is GM. Most consumers are unwittingly eating food produced from GM crops everyday.
Although food from GM-fed animals does not have to be labelled, animal feed does have to be labelled if it contains GM ingredients. Most feed (75%) is now labelled as ‘GM’, however, the survey found that most farmers (59%) did not know if their feed was GM. Soil Association tests also revealed a high level of breaches of the EU labelling laws – nearly 20% of feed contained GM soya above the 0.9% labelling threshold but bore no GM label. The Food Standards Agency is responsible for enforcing the legislation but is not conducting any tests to do so.
Due to the fact that at present, no field-scale GM crops are being grown in the UK, the GM feed is coming in from abroad, which massively increases the true food miles of the beef, pork or dairy produce. Both the ‘Red Tractor’ and RSPCA ‘Freedom Foods’ certification permit the use of GM feed to livestock – the only current guarantee is ‘Organic’.
I’m a fan of the video’s produced by PeakMoment on YouTube. They have interviewed loads of interesting people and projects, but the latest one really hit home about the philosophy of extending the environmental and sustainability movement to a broader audience.
They interviewed Alan Seid of Bellingham Co-housing Community (in the USA). You can watch the YouTube video below, under which are some of my highlights.
Alan suggested that the word ’sustainable’ has different meaning to different people. His view is that sustainability is something that would enable man to survive indefinitely, and as such involves looking at the whole environment, but also looking within people and understanding where people are ‘at’.
In order to reach the goal of sustainability, we have to work collectively – creating mutual understanding without coercing people. Human consciousness grows from Ego-Centric to Ethno-Centric to World-Centric (where Ego-Centric is all about ‘me’, Ethno-Centric is about people ‘like me’ and World-Centric is a holistic view of all things and people).
Alan identifies that one of the problems in getting the average person to be aware of sustainability is a psychological one; for example, recycling helps with a small (5-10%) amount of solid waste flow, but helps with 75% of people’s guilt. In other words people feel they have done alot when they haven’t, but telling them this is not easy!
It is therefore important to reach people at the right level to match their own world view. The ‘message’ needs to be framed correctly to match the audience, and in some cases, this means re-framing the same message to target different audiences who are motivated by different factors.
Environmentalists also need to remember that they are not perfect. Everyone needs to be open minded and to learn and progress themselves – it is easy to the ego to take over!
Finally, Alan talks about the importance of information sharing and communication with all interested parties (stakeholders) regarding whatever issue is being discussed.
