Possible Disaster For Greenpeace

Major health foods manufacturer predicts possible disaster for Greenpeace

A major US health foods manufacturer has predicted Greenpeace and other eco-groups may not survive their battle against genetic modification.

Greg Caton, President of Lumen Foods, one of America’s largest manufacturers of vegetarian health foods, said “They have it all wrong. There is no credible scientist in the world today who can show that so-called genetically modified foods are any less healthful than those made from traditional hybrid seed. In fact, the reverse is true”

Greg Caton is a keynote speaker at the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology Conference in Auckland next Monday.

“The US Food and Drug Administration, US Department of Agriculture, and Environmental Protection Agency have all done exhaustive research into their safety and have found we are not at risk from GM seed.

"We understand that Greenpeace and other eco-groups have to have fund-raising issues," Caton notes. "But their current campaign amounts to a declaration of war on agricultural biotech science, and it's going to be their Waterloo.

“What they are doing makes as much sense as calling for a ban on all computers because their monitors emit low-grade electromagnetic radiation. It's absurd.

“Once the public has figured out what they have done, the greatest danger is that in the future, when really important environmental matters are at stake, few people will listen to them, and their more intelligent arguments will be relegated to the left-wing fringe."

Earlier this year Lumen Foods announced it had broken ranks with Greenpeace and other environmental groups over the issue of genetically modified foods.

Not only has the company resisted pressure from environmentalists to take a "non-GM" stance, but it has actually promised to use genetically modified ingredients in its in-house manufacturing. Lumen Foods is, to date, one of the only U.S. food processing companies to take this position.

About Lumen Foods Lumen Foods is a whole foods manufacturing company, located in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The company was founded in 1986 to take advantage of a new development in food science for the manufacture of meat replacement products (or "meat analogs") from textured soy flour. It sells over 300 manufactured and packaged health food products, ranging from vegetarian jerkies to dried fruits and vegetables to complete meal entrees to long-term storage food items.

For further information contact: Rosemary Cleland, NZIFST Conference Manager: Ph (06) 3587155 or (021) 217 8298

Francis Wevers Executive Director NZ Life Sciences Network (Inc) PO Box 715, Wellington, New Zealand

Ph +64 4 9160100 Mobile +64 21 916010 Fax +64 4 4731081 mailto:fwevers@lifesciencenz.com website: http://www.lifesciencenz.com

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