Go to.... Home Contents Corporate Watch website Priority actions - animal feed Priority actions - imports Second generation GMOs Crop trial Other actions	Strategically, Corporate Watch’s analysis is that if you want to stop GM foods globally, the 2 most urgent areas are GM animal feed and imports (especially the company Archer Daniels Midland). And in the longer term, we need to focus on second generation crops, such as functional foods. Alternatively, if you want to stop commercial growing of GM crops in the UK (and so prevent genetic pollution of the countryside), then you should focus on the crop trials. See Corporate Watch’s briefing on the overall strategic position of the campaign: Apocalypse later? - who’s winning the biotech battle? We’ve included various tactics here; of course these aren’t the only possibilities. Many campaigners opt for non-violent direct action; while we obviously wouldn’t advocate breaking the law, we think there is a useful debate around the tactics of peaceful protest. If you want more on this, check out: Totnes Genetics Group Genetix Snowball Handbook Road Raging
	Corporate Watch website If you are shocked by just how much work on genetic engineering is going on in your local area (see local maps), why not arrange a demonstration, or write to your local paper, or send a press release, to highlight locally the number of sites near you.
Back to Top	Priority actions - animal feed More info on animal feed: CW briefing series on animal feed manufacturers Greenpeace UK briefing on GM animal feeds Millennium Debate paper on GM animal feeds Totnes Genetics Group briefing on GM animal feeds (NB since this was written, McDonald’s has withdrawn from GM-fed meat) Meet or write to your local supermarket manager, telling them you want to buy meat or dairy products from animals fed on a non-GM diet. Or write to the supermarket’s head office. If you get a reply, write back, to keep the dialogue going. set up a stall outside the supermarket to tell shoppers about GM-fed meat and dairy products, and encourage them to write in. More materials from Greenpeace, TOGG, GMO Campaign. if you have an animal feed company based near you (see your local map), organise a demonstration at the company’s address, with eye-catching banners. Or write to the local paper highlighting the company’s role in genetic engineering. Demand that the company switches to non-GM. if you live in the countryside, contact livestock farmers near you to ask whether they use GM or non-GM feed; point out that the trend is towards non-GM-fed meat and dairy products, so if they use GM they might have difficulty selling it.
Back to Top	Priority actions - imports More info on import companies: CW briefing series, ‘Control freaks’ Visit the offices and other sites of Archer Daniels Midland (locations) - with a well-publicised demonstration. ADM is the key company which can switch the supply chain, so is a very important strategic focus to pressurise (Cargill is also worth targeting, although less likely to succumb to pressure). Demand that they stop supplying GM crops at all (they will answer that they supply non-GM too - tell them that’s not enough). Write to your local newspaper. Set up an information stall at your local supermarket, explaining how ADM is bringing GMOs into Britain, despite consumers not wanting them (ADM is sensitive to bad publicity). ADM’s brands include vegetarian products: Haldane Foods, Granose, Direct Foods, Realeat. These products themselves may have gone non-GM, but it is worth pointing out how their parent company is actively making us eat GMOs in other ways. track the passage of GMOs from Cargill’s plant at the Port of Liverpool and ADM’s at Erith (Kent): observe which truck companies come out and make sure they receive bad publicity.
Back to Top	Second generation GMOs The industry’s long-term strategy for getting acceptance of genetic engineering is to produce crops that have some supposed (though highly questionable) health benefits for consumers or which will supposedly (though largely discredited) help the poor and starving of the world. We need to spread public awareness of this new threat. Info: Genewatch report ‘Biotech - The Next Generation: Good for whose health?’ Corporate Watch briefing on functional foods GRAIN report on vitamin A rice Set up a stall to educate people on the new GMOs, and ask their opinion. Write to your local paper. Write to supermarket head offices telling them you don’t believe functional foods are really healthy, and you won’t support them if they decide to sell them. Write to your MP, asking them to tell the Ministry of Agriculture you don’t want functional foods.
Back to Top	Crop trials For the most up-to-date and accurate listing of test sites in the UK and their status, see the Primal Seeds website. For more information on the trials, see the Genewatch or Friends of the Earth websites. There are 3 types of trial: • farm-scale trials - these are the most publicly visible and high-profile, so an important target in terms of public debate, They are also by far the largest, so present the greatest current threat of genetic pollution. • National Seed List trials - these trials are an essential legal requirement in the commercialisation process, so stopping these will physically slow down the process. • other trials - these are for the companies’ development of new varieties for the longer term. Write to farmers involved in the trials, urging them to pull out. Organise a public meeting against your local trials. Write to the local paper. Organise a local referendum on whether local people feel trials should go on in your area. Write to the local branch of the National Farmers Union, calling for a debate on whether GM trials should go ahead. Encourage the NFU branch to withdraw support from farmers involved in trials. Many activists argue that this genetic pollution must be stopped immediately and directly: for useful debate on how they have done this, see the Genetix Snowball Handbook.
Back to Top	Other actions Campaign against the finance behind GMOs - see separate page of ideas (eg lobbying your bank, insurance company or pension scheme). Write to your MP asking how much financial support the government is giving to development of GM (including research funding through BBSRC, including support from the Department of Trade and Industry for companies producing or using GMOs). Ask your MP to write to the relevant government departments saying you oppose this subsidy. (See the DTI’s BioGuide on government support for biotech). Write to your MP asking how many living organisms or parts of living organisms have been patented. Argue that life is not an invention, and should not be owned by private companies; ask your MP to write to the Department of Trade & Industry to express your views. Keep talking and writing to anyone with an interest in GMOs, including scientists, farmers, doctors. More: Links to the best websites for taking action.