It’s “action” season for anti-consumer activists, as groups spread out around the country to attack genetic improvement technologies. While the European Union has said genetically improved foods are “even safer than conventional plants and foods,” these folks have a different take:
Anti-genetic improvement group Northeast RAGE is organizing “town to town” in New England, and creating a “People’s Voluntary Labeling Brigade” that will descend on supermarkets and slap labels on foods containing genetically improved ingredients. They plan to start at Shaw’s stores this Saturday, January 19. In the words of Northeast RAGE itself, the group has taken “the responsibility for identifying genetically modified foods into their own hands.”
The Genetically Engineered Food Alert Coalition announced a “National Day of Action targeting Kraft” will be held “at supermarkets nationwide” on February 6. Anti-biotech activists plan to swarm supermarkets harassing employees and customers in an effort to persuade Kraft to “remove genetically engineered ingredients from their products.” Friends of the Earth and state-level Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) are participating.
The Organic Consumers Association, which tastefully picketed Manhattan Starbucks restaurants less than a week after September 11, will “leaflet and demonstrate at 600 [Starbucks] stores in 300 cities around the world between February 23 and March 2, to try to coerce the chain to stop using genetically improved products.
