A coalition of environmental activists, including members of Greenpeace and Clean Water Action, as well as several Boston University students, initiated the Boston end of a national campaign last week to stop Shaw’s and Star Market from distributing genetically engineered foods.
“The protests will be ongoing until GE [genetically engineered] products are removed,” said Greenpeace spokesman Craig Culp. Culp said the demonstrations so far have included distributing leaflets in front of and draping a banner from the roof of the Allston Star Market.
Shaw’s, however, is still waiting for a Food and Drug Administration ruling before determining a policy for GE products, according to Shaw’s spokesman Bernard Rogan.
“It is the FDA’s responsibility to issue guidelines,” Rogan said. “We cannot act independently because they’re protesting.”
Culp said Greenpeace is targeting Shaw’s and Star Markets for several reasons. Last November, similar protests led Trader Joe’s grocery stores to stop using GE ingredients in its private-label products. Now, Culp said, Greenpeace wants to “look to the mainstream.”
Consumer protests against J. Sainsbury, the overseas parent company of Shaw’s, were effective, and British Sainsbury stores no longer carry food with GE ingredients.
“It’s a particularly egregious double standard,” Culp said.
However, Rogan said the differences between British and American store policy are based on different regulation policies.
“The British mentality is fraught with lack of credibility in their regulatory committees. There’s no confidence after the foot-and-mouth disease problem,” Rogan said. “The FDA is taking a long time because its decision will have a huge impact. Right now, there’s no guidelines, and we can’t write them ourselves.”
The coalition of activists argues consumer demand is enough to change Shaw’s policy. The activists sent more than 30,000 comments to the CEO of Shaw’s asking for the company to, at the very least, label GE products, if not remove them completely, said Clean Water Action spokeswoman Linda Setchell.
“If they continue to refuse to listen to customers, we’ll continue to step up the pressure,” Setchell said.
Rogan said Shaw’s and Star Market customers are not upset by the stores’ inclusion of GE foods.
“We hear first and foremost from customers in the store, and the response is consistent across the country,” he said. “The noise is from the activists.”
Culp said many of the activists in the current protest are college students.
“It’s very encouraging how many students in college see activism as a duty, as a public service,” Culp said. “They’re actively engaged in democracy, willing to stand up and be seen, even be arrested.”
Margaret Beck, a graduate student at BU, has been involved with Clean Water Action for the past two years.
“I think genetically engineered food is a real important issue and health concern,” Beck said. “The negative effects are irreversible, and the longer we wait, the more negative effects become permanent.”
Beck participated in last Tuesday’s protest at the Allston Star Market, and she helped pass out leaflets and stick placards on the store’s windows.
“We need to increase awareness,” Beck said. “It’s a really important matter of public interest.”
However, Rogan said some of these strategies might result in expulsion from the store.
“When they start disrupting business, hanging signs on private property, we object to those tactics,” Rogan said. “Once they start interfering with business, we ask them to leave, and once they’re declared trespassing in one store, it’s the same for all stores.”
Rogan said, though, he expected more activism and protests.
“I don’t think this is an initiative Greenpeace is going to let go as long as it is there,” he said.
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