Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Sainsburys blockaded nationally!

Animal feed | 01.07.2004 23:41 | Bio-technology

Sainsburys chilled food distribution centres are blockaded across the country in protest against GM feed being fed to dairy cows.

SAINSBURY’S DEPOTS BLOCKADED: NO GM IN OUR MILK!

Sainsbury’s five biggest UK distribution centres have been shut down tonight. Environmentalists and consumers are simultaneously blockading the supermarket chain's chilled-goods depots in London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol and Sheffield. They are chained together through steel tubes, and sitting up ‘tripods’ blocking the depot gates.

This co-ordinated action is intended to halt distribution of Sainsbury's dairy products that come from cows fed GM animal feed. The protest follows Sainsbury’s failure to provide non-GM fed milk as standard, despite rivals like Marks and Spencer and the Co-op doing so. The action is taken in solidarity with farmers, demanding they get a fair deal of 2p on the pound for non-GM milk. Removing GM animal feed is the last step necessary to make Britain entirely GM-free

A protester explained:
“Neither farmers or consumers want GM in our food chain. Sainsbury’s must keep their promise to phase out its use, and pay farmers properly so they can do so”

A farmer added:
“We are paid less for our milk than it costs to produce. GM is only adding to the crisis in our industry. We want an end to the exploitation of foreign farmers through GM, and an end to the exploitation of us by the supermarkets.”

The protesters intend to stay until GM fed products are taken off Sainsbury’s shelves. The police have been called but any arrests are likely to be seriously delayed by the demonstrator’s chains and equipment. Following the sacking of chairman Sir Peter Davis, Sainsbury now has to face questions about justice - not only profits.

NOTES TO EDITORS

1.GM fed milk is currently unlabelled. The effects of GM on both cattle, and the people who then eat products from them, have never been tested by independent scientists.

2.Prof. Bob Orskov OBE, director of the International Feed Resource Unit in Aberdeen has said “As a scientist, I wouldn’t drink milk from cows fed GM with the current state of knowledge”.

3.In the face of public concern Sainsbury’s pledged to phase out the use of GM in animal feed three years ago, but are now claiming they cannot for economic reasons.

4.The blockade is supported by a coalition of environmental and farmers groups for more information see  http://www.geneticsaction.org.uk/resources/alliancesainsburys.pdf

5.The 5 depots blockaded cover around 70% of Sainsbury’s fresh food distribution network in the UK.

Animal feed

Comments

Hide the following 10 comments

Liverpool blockade ended 03:30 - no arrests

02.07.2004 02:45

The blockade in Liverpool ended at about 3:30 in the morning after closing Sainsbury's Haydock distribution depot for four hours.

There were no arrests, and the blockade ended according to plan.

watcher


London Blockade Ended at 0300hrs . 8 arrested

02.07.2004 04:20

The London depot was successfully closed for over 3 hours and ended with 8 arrests.

Full report to follow.

Sophie


South Yorkshire blockade ended 4:57 am

02.07.2004 04:59

no arrests, equipment saved, three oranges down.

rhubarb


Bristol Blockade ended at 5:30 am

02.07.2004 06:24

No arrests and equipment saved. Sucessfully blockaded for 6.5 hours.

dee lock


Nice action............

02.07.2004 10:29

Well done to all those involved!

East midlands Sainsbury's looking low on milk @ 11am on a friday.

leaflets distributed in the emptying shelves, more to be dropped off later ;-)

brilliant timing

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3856725.stm

and very well covered up (apart from this report?)

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/3859607.stm

Hopefully the co-op will sell every last drop of its milk today!


Sainsbury now to be bought out?

 http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=abPgELWWBN7M&refer=europe

By this bunch of muppets?

 http://www.kkr.com/about/who_we_are.html


hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

silent bob


Media blackout

02.07.2004 11:17

The lack of media coverage on this isn't surprising, I suppose, but deeply irritating nonetheless! I suppose no-one wants to admit how easy it is to disrupt most of the UK's
food supply - god forbid, people might start arguing against supermarkets...

Matt

Matt S


Birmingham Depot Blockade

02.07.2004 12:15

Birmingham blockade arrived at 11pm Thursday to find cops everywhere, we regrouped and changed plan slightly and blockaded the depot from 1-30 am till 7am. 12 arrests in total.

moo cow


Congratulations!

02.07.2004 14:05

This was really a stunning action-- coordinated across the country with such efficiency! Congratulations to the planners and executors. Do bear in mind that the men in London who wargame 'national emergency' situations will take a great deal of interest in how you pulled this off. Be prepared to be watched and inspected... remember lowtech communication, ie no computers and telephones, is the only secure means

Peter Piper


Press picking up

02.07.2004 14:33

From PA (Press Association) wire

nb. theres also been lots of local radio pickup - eg local warwickshire/coventry radio.. ;-)

Fri 2 Jul 2004

2:52pm (UK)
Twenty Arrested in Protests at Sainsbury's Depots

By Graham Hiscott, Consumer Affairs Correspondent, PA News


Twenty protesters were arrested following demonstrations outside distribution depots belonging to supermarket chain Sainsbury’s early today.

Essex police said eight people were arrested for a range of offences including aggravated trespass, obstruction of the highway and criminal damage outside a depot in Waltham Abbey.

Police in Warwickshire confirmed a further 12 protesters were arrested near a Sainsbury’s plant in Coleshill.

The demonstration was staged to highlight the alleged continued use by Sainsbury’s of imported GM animal feed for its dairy products.

Protest leaders said at least 100 people chained themselves together and erected steel tripod structures outside five depots from late last night until this morning in order to disrupt deliveries.

They said protests took place in Coleshill and Waltham Abbey, plus Emerson’s Green, Bristol; St Helens, Merseyside; and Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

The campaign was co-ordinated by a coalition of groups including Farmers for Action, Genetic Food Alert, and the Small Farms Association.

Sainsbury’s said in a statement: “Our milk does not contain GM ingredients.

“Milk is highly regulated and like all supermarkets, we are subject to stringent food safety controls.

“Our milk is sourced from British dairy farms that supply other UK supermarkets, like Tesco and Asda – as well as hotels, schools and hospitals.

“The Food Standards Agency has categorically stated that there is no evidence that milk from animals fed on GM crops contains any GM material.

“To offer choice to our customers, we have launched a new milk from cows fed on non-GM feed which is now in over 100 stores.”

don't hate the media eat the media


mass media coverage

02.07.2004 14:44

Just found that the Edinburgh Evening News published an article about the actions:

 http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3155367

and BBC Radio 2 covered it last night.

fredrico
mail e-mail: musteatvegan@yahoo.co.uk


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech