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STOP GM FOODS CAMPAIGN: WHAT THE READERS THINK: Your letters

Sunday 14 March 1999 00:02 GMT
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CONSUMER CHOICE - or lack of it - has been a dominant theme in recent readers' letters, and we have had thousands of you backing our campaign's call for clearer labelling of GM products in food. As Nicky Goddard of Preston, Lancashire put it: "I deplore the position I find myself in when I now go shopping. I no longer trust Sainsbury, whose own brand products I have bought for years. I believe these will often contain GM ingredients." Many people are turning instead to organic products, but as Amanda and Paul Whitehead of Stroud, Gloucestershire, point out, the expense of these foodstuffs means not everyone can afford them. "We would very much welcome the introduction of labelling GM foods so that we and many others who share our views (and who possibly cannot afford organic food) are given the choice of avoiding them," they write.

Gerard and Suzanna Fawcitt of Winkleigh, Devon, believe that the best way forward is for the government to commission impartial research on the effects of GM ingredients. In the meantime, they believe, "consumers are entitled to comprehensive labelling so that they can make a choice".

Our postbag on GM foods consists of several thousand letters, and we received several petitions last week as well - one from 50 people in Shrewsbury, another from the staff and inmates of La Moye prison, Jersey, and lastly from 133 residents of Guildford who attended a public meeting on the issue. We will be sending these and all your letters to Jack Cunningham, the Cabinet enforcer.

WRITE TO: GM CAMPAIGN, THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, 1 CANADA SQUARE, CANARY WHARF, LONDON, E14 5DL

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