ISSUE 1671 Wednesday 22 December 1999

Monsanto's chefs banish GM food By Andrew Hibberd

GENETICALLY modified food has been banned from the staff restaurant of Monsanto, the company spearheading GM crop trials in Britain.

Granada Food Services decided to remove modified products from the menu in Monsanto's canteen at its base in High Wycombe, Bucks, "in response to concern raised by customers". The ban applies to all food outlets operated by Granada Food Services. Catering at the Monsanto facility is managed by Sutcliffe Catering, one of its subsidiaries.

Mike Batchelor, Granada's quality systems director, said: "In response to concern raised by our customers over the use of GM foods and to comply with Government legislation, we have taken the decision to remove, as far as practicable, GM soya and maize from all food products served in our restaurant."

Friends of the Earth, which has campaigned against the use of GM ingredients in food and the farm-scale crop trials, claimed the decision by Granada Food Services proved that even Monsanto's own caterers had "no confidence" in the company's products.

Tony Combes, director of corporate affairs for Monsanto, denied the decision was an embarrassment for the company. He described it as "ironic" that Granada had chosen to restrict customer choice to decide for themselves whether they ate GM products.

He said that at Monsanto's Cambridge offices the canteen was run in-house and had a different policy on GM foods. "We believe in choice. At our Cambridge restaurant the notice says some products 'may contain GMOs' because our staff are happy to eat foods sprayed with fewer chemicals," he said.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), December 22, 1999

Answers

Future headlines -

In response to worldwide pollution threat, Toyoto bans employees from driving cars.

In responsed to dumbing down of populace, NBC bans all employees from watching TV.

In response to worldwide cry for help, Microsoft bans all employees from writing software code....

-- bb (b@b.b), December 22, 1999.

If we could only ban politicians from making laws!

"If I only had a brain" Kook

-- Y2Kook (Y2Kook@usa.net), December 22, 1999.