Growing concern over GM materials in animal feeds. (UK) Farmer's Guardian.

April 30th 99

Animal feed companies are preparing for the possibility that major
retailers will start to demand that livestock are fed animal feed free of
genetically modified material.

It follows comments made by Food and Farming Minister Lord Donoughe last
week that consumers were becoming increasingly concerned about the effects
GM animal feed and the decision On Tuesday by two of Unilever's subsidiary
companies and Tesco to remove GM ingredients from it's products.

Industry trade body UKASTA said it was awaiting developments to see whether
there would be calls for to establish a market for GM free animal feed.

Jim Reed, UKASTA director general, said there would be considerable
repercussions to the industry if the market split, adding that it would
place extra emphasis on feed millers and suppliers importing material from
third countries.

Mr Reed said he had been holding talks with senior Ministry of Agriculture
civil servants and retailers over what was possible , but stressed that it
was important to wait and see the outcome of the European Commission's
proposed regulations on novel animal feeds.

Jim Reed, UKASTA director general, said that if there was demand for GM free
animal feed, it would lead to additional premium. "Takes soya for
instance. In some diets it is possible to avoid soya, but in a situation
were you cannot it could be 40% more expensive, adding between 5 and 10% to
the overall feed price"

Lord Donohue stressed there was no evidence of carry over of genetic
material from animal feed, to the food chain. But he said purchasers had a
right to know whether animal feed contained material from Gm crops such as
maize and soya.

"The UK Government is pressing the Commision to submit to the Council it's
proposed regulation on animal feeds or, in it's abscence, specific
labelling rules which would indicate the presence of GM materials in a fair
and consistant way, throughout the European Union.

Tesco said this week that under it's code of Practice some GM animal feed,
such as unprocessed maize, had been banned, but that it had no plans at
present to close the door on other ones.

Spokeman Simon Soffe said ongoing talks with suppliers were taking place,
adding  the company was listening to customer concerns.

The retailer said it was removing gm ingredients from products "wherever is
it practical, and would provide options by adding to its organic range.It
is currently working with Greenpeace to seek reliable sources of genuinely
GM free ingredients.

Unilever said its companies "Birds Eye and Van den Bergh foods would use GM
free ingredients where ever possible, prompting enviromentalists to claim
that the decision would have world wide impacts on farmers growing GM
crops.

Cabinet Office Minister Jack Cunningham told the commons environmental audit
committee on Tuesday that the Government did not believe a five year
moratorium on commercial planting of GM crops was either justified or
necessary. Dr Cunningham said he would shortly announce new moves to
improve the regulations of GM foods.

"Within a few weeks, we will be publishing the results of a consultation
and I would be very surprised if we were not to recommend further changes."