GM BARN DOOR IS ALREADY OPEN!

10 June 2003

Scottish organic farmers alert public to widespread use of GM

With the nationwide debate on GM food due to reach Glasgow on 11 June, Scottish organic dairy farmers are alerting the general public to the little-known fact that GM is already widely used in non-organic cattlefeed throughout the country.

According to members of the Organic Milk Supplier's Cooperative (OMSCo) the public have been hoodwinked into believing that the debate is an opportunity to voice their views about GM to feed into policy decisions, while in fact many non-organic farms have been feeding dairy cows GM cattlefeed for a number of years.

OMSCo farmer, David Finlay, from Kirkudbright comments:

"Most people don't realise that conventional dairy cattlefeeds are made with GM products, and many contain solvents and urea too. On organic farms we can only give our cows feed that is free of GM, solvents and urea. So, the only way to ensure the milk and dairy products you are eating have not been produced with the use of GM, is to buy British organic milk and dairy."

"We don't know what the impact of GM will be but organic dairy farmers prefer to be safe rather than sorry by banning GM products on their farms."

OMSCo organic milk is produced from cows which are not given routine antibiotics, aren't fed GM feed and haven't grazed on pastures treated with artificial pesticides. Its milk is used in products such as Safeways and Tesco own label organic milk (Scotland only) and Cream O'Galloway organic icecream. For more information, visit the OMSCo website on www.omsco.co.uk.

ENDS

For more information contact Katy Bedingfield or Abby Edwards at Grayling on 0117 922 7799