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".