Greens target junk food ads and GM foodstuffs across Europe

THE Green Party yesterday launched a new Europe-wide campaign calling for an end to junk food advertising and a complete ban on all GM foods.

The new drive dubbed the Dublin Declaration was formally launched by European Green party president and French MEP Dany Cohn-Bendit at a special conference in Dublin Castle yesterday.

The campaign is the first in a new Green Party initiative to co-ordinate actions throughout Europe with green parties from each EU state working together on a pan-national basis.

MEP Patricia McKenna said banning junk food ads was a matter of urgency given rising levels of obesity in Europe and Ireland.

"Obesity in Ireland is our fastest growing health problem, particularly among children; and it's no coincidence given that children are the targets of saturation marketing by the junk food industry," she said.

Ms McKenna also warned an Irish ban alone would not be enough given the ease of access to foreign networks and channels.

"With satellite channels now beaming in ads particularly targeted at the Irish market, we need EU-wide co-operation if this problem is to be properly tackled," she said.

The Dublin Declaration calls for the redrafting of the EU Television Without Frontiers directive under which governments can control food adverts, particularly those aimed at children from outside the State.

The Green Party is also demanding Ireland be declared a GM-free zone in advance of a crucial EU decision on whether a ban on GM foodstuffs should be lifted.

The decision on whether to allow the sale of GM food in the EU, in the form of tinned sweetcorn, is due before EU agriculture ministers later this month.

According to the Green Party, Ireland is one of six EU countries to have voted in favour of lifting the ban.

Speaking yesterday Mr Cohn-Bendit said green parties across Europe are angry at the high levels of cross contamination from GM seeds and crops the EU is prepared to accept before a product has to be labelled as containing GM material.

"On the basis of bad science, Ireland is going to let down its own consumers and food consumers all over Europe by presiding over the lifting of the ban on GM food in the EU."

Leinster-East Euro candidate Mary White said recent food scares had highlighted how food production was a political issue that needed to be addressed politically. "The big food scares of the past few years, such as BSE, cancer risks from farmed salmon, salmonella in chicken and bird flu. These have all shaken consumer trust, especially in meat and processed food," she said.