The principles for supermarket decontamination

Slipping my stolen mahogany coat hanger under my jacket I slipped undetected past the security guards and out of Harrod's main entrance. They had, of course, been informed in advance that we were coming to recover their stolen property but had neglected to do anything about it. Along with thirty or so other 'shoppers'we set off to the local police station to report the crime. 'Whose crime? Who's nicked all this stuff?'said the desk sergeant, looking somewhat bemused at the display of mahogany furniture on the desk before him. 'Their crime'we replied, 'They nicked it - we recovered it. We want to report it as stolen goods and we want you to investigate their crime. ....". The sergeant scratched his head looking even more baffled, 'You want me to investigate Harrods ?!' 'Yes, we've got loads of evidence on the criminals and Harrods are aiding and abetting. Can we have a crime reference number please?'

The shopping expeditions were part of a campaign called CRISP - Citizen's Recovery of Indigenous people's Stolen Property. They were widely reported in the media and in spite of all the evidence provided on the thieves and their side-kicks, the police said they did not have enough evidence to pursue the matter. Some even suggested that it was a crime to remove the stolen goods from the shops, but they seemed unwilling to arrest anyone for the alleged crime. Out of more than 100 recoveries, only two charges of theft were made, alas, not against the real criminals but against two CRISP Officers. The charges were later dropped, presumably through lack of evidence.

So far, genetiX snowball has focused on the production end of GM food - the GM crops in our fields. But is it really enough to keep the genetic peril from our own fields whilst it is being imported from fields in other countries? We also need to pay attention to the consumer end of things - the GM products in our supermarkets.

The principles for supermarket decontamination are almost the same as for trial sites (see Handbook) with a few exceptions. Bag up no more than 100 GM food products, instead of plants. The bagged up products can be taken to the local Environmental Agency for disposal instead of asking for them to be collected. The supermarket Manager will need to be contacted in advance, instead of the farmer. As with the CRISP actions, it will be important to give assurances in our statements that we have no intention of taking these products for our personal gain, otherwise they might confuse us with 'common criminals'. We are simply providing a useful biohazard disposal service.

Contact Rowan (see under local groups for contact details) for more information, especially about possible consequences.