GERMAN NESTLE, UNILEVER & OTHER MAJOR EUROPEAN BUYERS REFUSE 1996 U.S. SOY EXPORTS TAINTED BY GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SOYBEANS

FOUNDATION ON ECONOMIC TRENDS CLAIMS FIRST ROUND VICTORY IN BATTLE TO DRIVE MONSANTO'S "ROUNDUP READY" SOYBEANS OFF THE MARKET

WASHINGTON, D.C.--The Pure Food Campaign and the Foundation on Economic Trends President Jeremy Rifkin announced today that Nestle and Unilever in Germany and other major European soy buyers have begun to cancel orders for U.S. soybean exports, due to consumer backlash against the controversial US government policy allowing unlabeled and relatively untested genetically engineered soybeans to be mixed together with ordinary soybeans and sold on domestic and international markets. Unilever and Nestle announced respectively on Oct. 24 and 25 that they are canceling orders amounting to over 650,000 metric tons of unprocessed US soybeans--equivalent to 7.1% of last year's 9.1 million metric tons of US soy exports to Europe.

Nestle and Unilever's announcement comes in the wake of similar actions taken by other European soy and soy oil buyers, including leading supermarket chains, baby food manufacturers, dietary food producers, and the natural foods industry in Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, and other EU nations. As Eurocommerce--the umbrella trade association representing wholesalers and retailers in 20 European countries--pointed out in a Oct. 7 press conference sponsored by the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C., recent European surveys indicate that up to 90% of consumers insist upon mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods.

Since October 7 over 300 consumer, health, farmer, and environmental organizations from 48 nations have pledged to boycott Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" herbicide resistant soybeans, citing potential human health hazards and adverse environmental impacts. A similar controversy has erupted over Swiss-based Ciba Geigy's genetically engineered Bt-spliced corn, presently approved for marketing in the US, but banned in Europe.

According to Dan McGuire, former executive director of the Interstate Grain Commission in Lincoln, Nebraska, "An Oct. 24 export sales report by the USDA documents that cumulative US soybean exports to Europe this marketing year are only 69.3% of year ago levels. The lack of flexibility [on refusing to separate and label genetically engineered soybeans and other grains] combined with the indifference and arrogance of some of the US/multinational grain companies toward our European customers flies in the face of the very 'market-oriented' farm and export policy that these same grain traders and commodity groups pushed through the US Congress in 1996." McGuire went on to add "If the US grain industry really believes it is 'supermarket to the world,' it better start acting like it. With cumulative US exports off a full 20-30% and soybean prices at the farm gate dropping steadily, the negative impact on farmers and the rural economy from this export issue is very serious indeed. And let us remember that although US farmers and the US economy are losing export sales to Europe, this does not mean that the multinational grain companies are losing sales--since they are quite willing to sell European buyers the grains and oilseeds produced by the US's foreign competitors," concluded McGuire.

Despite the Clinton Administration's refusal to require special pre-market safety testing or labeling of genetically engineered foods and crops, consumer concern over gene-spliced products, both in Europe and the US, is growing. Consumer polls over the past decade indicate that 80-95% of the American public wants mandatory labeling. An April 17th poll by the Associated Press found that 22% of Americans have changed their dairy food purchasing habits because of concern over Monsanto's controversial genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone (also known as rBGH or BST).

An earlier boycott against rBGH has resulted in heavy financial losses for Monsanto during the first two years of the product's introduction onto the US market. In addition the international boycott against rBGH has successfully blocked approval in Canada, Australia, and the European Union. Both the international rBGH boycott and the current soybean and corn boycotts have been organized by the Foundation on Economic Trends (FET) and its affiliate, the Pure Food Campaign.

"The message from consumers worldwide is clear. Unless genetically engineered foods and crops are properly safety-tested and labeled, consumers and socially responsible businesses are left with no other alternative but to boycott them," said Jeremy Rifkin, President of the FET. "Monsanto and Ciba Geigy are going to suffer catastrophic losses and cripple US agricultural exports unless they withdraw their gene-spliced soybeans and corn from the world market," concluded Rifkin.

"As we predicted on October 7, Monsanto's genetically engineered 'Roundup Ready' soybeans have sparked a major trade confrontation between the US and our trading partners in Europe. The latest data show that US farmers and the US economy have already lost $150-450 million dollars in soybean sales to Europe, with the controversy growing more intense with each passing week," said Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Pure Food Campaign.

San Francisco State Philosophy Department has just put together a new homepage on the dangers of Genetic Engineering:

Also see: www.bio-integrity.org

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

For a complete e-mail overview of this problem e-mail request to: pmligotti@earthlink.net

Dr Ron Epstein

Philosophy Department

College of Humanities

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, CA 94132

(415) 338-3140

office e-mail: epstein@athena.sfsu.edu

home e-mail: namofo@pacific.net

1-510-838-4249 leave name, address, and phone
1-515-472-2809 office number in the United States,
or write to:
Mothers For Natural Law
P.O. Box 1177
Fairfield, Iowa 52556 U.S.A.