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Siewert Xenophon Baby Bottle Parliament
Siewert Xenophon Baby Bottle Parliament
Mums Demand Right to Know at Parliament House

Greenpeace's team of activist mums visited Parliament House last week with the world's largest baby bottle. They called on the federal government to take action and prevent unlabelled, untested genetically modified (GM) products sneaking onto our shelves.

The mums were joined by Senator Nick Xenophon, Senator Rachel Siewert and Professor Peter Collignon from Canberra Hospital to demand action on contaminated baby formula.

The activists took the world's biggest bottle of baby formula and hundreds of smaller baby bottles containing Wyeth's S-26 Soy baby formula. Independent testing revealed that this product is contaminated with GM organisms and is unlabelled. The activists are calling on federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, to take the bottles back.

Ms Roxon has primary responsibility for GM labelling in Australia and will oversee the Council of Australian Governments (COAG)'s decision on the government review of food labelling laws in February 2011. If you haven't done so already, email Ms Roxon and tell her Australian kids aren't guinea pigs!

The maker of S-26, Wyeth, owned by pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, has since admitted S-26 Soy is contaminated, but refuses to label the product or withdraw it from supermarket shelves.

"GM has not undergone the testing necessary to establish safety for adults, let alone babies" said Greenpeace Campaigner, Laura Kelly.  "Australian parents have a right to know what goes into their children's food. These companies are abusing the loopholes in our lax labelling laws and Australians are being forced to eat in the dark".


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