IN Britain, there is a multi-pronged approach to try to get genetically modified food onto the nation’s plates. The majority of the British public who express a view on GM food do not want it. 

However, we are experiencing a consistent drive to distort the debate over the GM issue, hijack institutions, co-opt so-called public servants and pass off vest commercial interests as the public good. 

The GMO industry is mounting a fully fledged assault on Britain via the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Business, Innovations and Skills, the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, the Science Media Centre, the all-party parliamentary group on science and technology in agriculture, strategically placed scientists with their “independent” reports and the industry-backed Science Media Centre. 

Monsanto and other agritech companies are also lobbying hard for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which aims to throw Europe’s door wide open to GM food imports from the US with unchecked, uncheckable and unlabelled GM food. 

The same companies are also behind the drive to weaken the pan-European regulatory framework currently in place by attempting to push through legislation that will allow them to pick off each state one by one and force their GMOs onto people. 

The industry, its mouthpieces and proxies are moreover pushing to do away with European process-based regulation, which would effectively side-step any effective process for assessing and regulating GMOs. 

As if these tactics aren’t enough, the contamination of our food with GMOs is occurring right now via imported GM food from the US, which is finding its way onto the shelves of supermarkets. 

Sean Poulter writing in the Daily Mail (November 7) notes that Marks & Spencer does not use GM in own-label products. 

However, it now sells products from other brands which contain GM soya or corn. 

M&S had a policy of selling only GM-free food, but the chain is now selling six products containing GM soya or corn despite having long presented itself as being opposed to such engineered products. 

The six are teriyaki, ginger, and hibachi sauces from the US TonTon brand and three flavours of Moravian Cookie — sugar, chocolate, and cranberry and orange.

Other stores are also selling an increasing number of imported US foods from brands including Reese, Hershey and Oreo that contain GM ingredients.

Last year M&S, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and the Co-op abandoned pledges to ensure animals supplying milk, eggs, chicken, pork and beef were not fed a GM diet.

While some food on British supermarket shelves comes from animals fed on GM crops, without this fact needing to be declared on the label — the EU imports about 30 million tons a year of GM crops for animal consumption — what we now have are GMOs appearing in various food products.

There was a row last year when it emerged Tesco was stocking US Lucky Charms cereal, which is made from GM corn (declared in small print on the package). The cereal also contains artificial colours that the Food Standards Agency has linked to hyperactivity in young children. 

Dr Helen Wallace of GeneWatch says that by importing this product, M&S is contributing to the devastating crash in Monarch butterfly populations. 

She adds that weedkiller on GM soya and maize has destroyed vast swathes of their habitat. Customers are likely to be shocked by this cavalier disregard for the environment.

Liz O’Neill of GM Freeze states that people expect to be able to trust their favourite retailers who wouldn’t put these ingredients in their own-brand products.

The regulations concerning the import and sale of GMOs for human and animal consumption grown outside the EU supposedly involve providing freedom of choice to farmers and consumers. 

All food including processed food which contains greater than 0.9 per cent of approved GMOs must be labelled. Therefore, in Britain, foods made with GM ingredients need to say so on the label. 

This is a legal requirement and is one of the main reasons why there is very little GM on the shelves — the GMO biotech sector knows the public would not buy it. 

But what about food production that involves GM enzymes that helped to make the product on the shelf? What about flavourings? What about GM micro-organisms that aided a fermentation process? 

While the product itself may appear to be non-GMO, genetic engineering may have been involved somewhere along the line. 

Taking such matters into account, European legislation requires labelling for certain products and not for others depending on what was involved during the food manufacturing process. 

As it currently stands, a GMO must be approved by the EU for import as food and feed before it can be sold
in Britain or any other European country. 

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) does a risk assessment and decides if the GMO is safe. The member countries then vote whether to accept it in food and feed. 

If no qualified majority is achieved, the Commission makes a final
decision. 

The EU bureaucracies do not inspire much confidence — the conflict-of-interest-ridden EFSA’s track record on glyphosate leaves much to be desired. 

Similar conflicts of interests within the European Commission’s scientific committees seriously compromise consumer safety. 

The European Commission itself is a captive but willing servant of a corporate agenda and the biotech lobby’s massive presence in Brussels is worrying to say the least.  

So how can people in Britain avoid GMOs on an everyday basis? Here are just a few pointers.

• Grow your own food if you have the space.
• Do not shop at stores that stock GM products or sell animal products that involved GM feed. Pressure them to stop selling GM items. 
• Do not shop at places that have not made a commitment to using non-GMO animal feed. 
• Lobby your MPs and MEPs to stop the TTIP and to strengthen European legislation pertaining to GMOs.