Sixty “eco-chickens” invaded a soya processing plant in Liverpool this morning (20 November) in protest against the importation of genetically modified crops into the UK.
In a Trojan-style attack organised by environmental pressure group Greenpeace, volunteers infiltrated the Cargill facility at Gladstone Docks by hiding in four trucks that were driven through the main gates and then manoeuvred to block weighing stations used by the grain trucks.
Police responded to the incident as “sixty chickens burst out of the back of the trucks” (Greenpeace) and proceeded to chain themselves to railings, climb conveyor belts and hang anti GM banners.
Greenpeace has carried out a sustained campaign against Cargill, which controls the “main gateway” for almost all the importation of GM soya into the UK, and they claim that the company is “ignoring valid public concerns.”
“If Cargill ends these imports, and stops contaminating our animal feed supply,” said campaigner Emma Gibson, “they will be satisfying both the public and the majority of food producers and retailers who want food that is GM free.”
In the meantime, the pressure group has vowed to occupy the facility and just-food.com reminds Cargill’s security of the age-old warning to “beware Greenpeace bearing gifts.”
