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Re: Canadian "ban gen engineered food" supermarket campaign
For your info - re: doing this in Canada and similar campaigns elsewhere
.... P. Dines
--- FORWARD ---
From: Richard Wolfson, INTERNET:rwolfson@concentric.net
To: Patricia Dines, 73652,1202
To: richard@ottawa.com
Date: Mon, Jun 23, 1997, 7:49 PM
RE: BanGEF Action Campaign
Dear friend,
Thank you for your concern about genetically engineered foods. I wanted to
up-date you on our BanGEF letter writing campaign, which many of you may
not have actually heard about yet. This campaign is in response to the
success of a similar campaign in Europe.
In Europe, consumers have been successful in convincing many large food
chains to not carry genetically engineered foods, or at least to label
them. They accomplished this by having many people write letters to the
head offices of major food chains, expressing their concerns, stating that
they do not want to eat genetically engineered foods, and demanding that
these foods be at least labelled. Because food chains are responsive to
concerns from customers about their products, these letters can have a very
large impact.
In response to the European success, we have begun a similar campaign in
Canada.
(If you are in USA and want to get involved, you can contact mothers for
natural law at mothers@fairfield.com who are organizing a similar campaign
in USA. For other countries, please check with your Natural Law Party.)
In Canada, since there are only a dozen or so major chains, it is easy to
start with them. Below is a list of food chains that we already have
contact information for. Please encourage anyone concerned about
genetically engineered foods to send these chains as many letters, faxes,
and emails as possible to:
Loblaws:
Ms. Neva Pandos, Customer Service, Loblaws National Office, 6220A Yonge
St., North York, ON M4T 2S5 fax: 416-218-7861 email: npandos@ngco.com
(a number of people have sent email to this person, but they have not
indicated openness to label, etc.)
IGA:
Tim Carter, Vice-President of Public Affairs, Oshawa Group Limited (IGA),
302 The East Mall, Etobocoke, ON M9B 6B8 Tel. 416-236-1971, fax
416-236-2071
(They do not have email, but have expressed receptivity to the few letters
they have received. It would be good to send more letters)
Dominion, A&P and Food Basics:
Ronald Boudreau, Executive V.P. Supermarket Operations, A&P and Dominion
P.O. Box 68, Station A, Toronto, Ontario M5W 1A6
Tel: 416-239-7171 Fax: 416-234-6581 (A&P, Dominion)
.........
Below is a sample letter that you can use if you like to write your own.
If you use this one, please rewrite it somewhat in your own words so that
all the letters do not look the same:
SAMPLE LETTER FOR THE GEF CAMPAIGN
* To grocery stores, food producers, restaurants:
Dear _____,
I would like to congratulate you on the quality, convenience and pleasant
service I find in your store/company/restaurant. I very much enjoy your
products.
I would also like to let you know about some new experimental foods on the
market, which I feel very concerned about, namely genetically engineered
foods.
I object to them for several reasons. (Mention some of the dangers you have
read about and you can ask them to contact you if they would like more
information) I will not allow my family to be experimented on with foods
that have not been rigorously tested. Nor will I blindly accept that the
environment my children live in be endangered by a technology whose
side-effects are admitedly unknown. The last decades have seen enough
technologies bring disastrous results.
I would very much appreciate if you could send me written assurance that
your foods do not contain genetically engineered ingredients or at the very
least, that such ingredients are clearly labelled.
A group of citizens in Ottawa is going to publish the list of all food
retailers, producers, and restaurants, who keep their products free from
these genetically modified ingredients or who at least label these foods so
that customers can choose. They will also publish a list of all companies
who do not respond or who not commit do labelling. I will pass your
written confirmation to them.
As much as I enjoy your store/products/restaurant, I will not be able to
remain your customer unless I receive from you a clear support on this most
vital issue for our well-being.
Thank you for seriously considering this information. I look forward to
your reply.
Sincerely
name,
address
...........................................................................
.
Note that we are telling them in the letter that we will publish our list
of companies that are committed to not carrying or labelling genetically
engineered foods, and the list of those that do not commit. Once you get a
response, let us know what they say, so that we can keep track of the
information and share it with everyone else.
Best wishes and thank you for your support
Richard
PS Here is of some other regional stores.
If they have outlets in your area, please send them letters as well.
___________________________________________________________________
Knob Hill Farms (Southern Ontario) can be addressed to:
Larry Cervini, Head Grocery Buyer, Knob Hill Farms
1900 Eglinton Avenue East, Scarborough, Ontario M1L 2L9
Fax: 416-751-2423
or Bill Giamos, V.P. of Store Operations, (address & fax above)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Pearson, District Manager, Canada Safeway
Box 430 Stn. L, Edmonton, AB T5M 3Y1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anne Bird, Corporate Director, Horne & Pitfield Foods
17220 Stony Plain Road, Edmonton, AB T5S 1K6
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thrifty Foods on Vancouver Island:
Mr. Alex Campbell, President, Thrifty Foods, 6649 Butler Cres.,
Saanichton B.C. V8M 1Z7 Tel: (250) 544 1122 Fax: (250) 544 1102
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LOEB: (In Ontario and Quebec only)
Mr. Jim Robertson, Senior V.P. of Operations,
LOEB, 1430 Blair Place, P.O. Box 8387, Ottawa, K1G 3K8 fax: 613-747-6989
------------------------------------------------------------------------
COSCO (Alberta and BC)
Ms. Deb Quinlan, Customer service, 2525 State St., Columbus, Indiana USA
47201
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FARM BOY (Ottawa and Cornwall only)
P.O. Box 1659, 100 Second St. W., Cornwall, ON K6H 5V6 fx: 613-938-6649
email: fbmail@farmboy.on.ca
------------------------------------------------------------------------
REAL CANADIAN SUPERSTORE (out west)
Contact: Westfair Foods, 3225 12 st. NE, Calgary AB T2E 7S9
Phone: 403-291-7700 Fax: 403-297-7899
Ms. Rosalind Bragg, Director of Customer Relations,
or Mr. Ray Daoust, Director of Retail Operations
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SAVE ON FOODS (out west)
email: general@owfg.com
http://www.sof.com/believeit/index2.html
Director of Environmental Concerns Realizing the need to be an active
participant in preserving our environment, Save-On-Foods became the first
retailer in B.C. to appoint a full time Director of Environmental Concerns.
http://www.sof.com/believeit/site/environment.html
_________________________________________________________
Richard Wolfson, PhD
Campaign to Ban Genetically Engineered Food
Natural Law Party
500 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, ON Canada K1N 6N2
Tel. 613-565-8517 Fax. 613-565-6546
email: rwolfson@concentric.net
NLP Website: http://www.natural-law.ca
.
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