NESTLE JOINS STAMPEDE TO GET OUT OF
GE FOOD PRODUCTS: GREENPEACE

LONDON, April 28, 1999 -- Greenpeace today said there was now a
"stampede" to get out of genetically engineered (GE) food by
multinational food companies following Nestle UK's announcement that
it would be removing these ingredients from its product line.

Greenpeace spokesperson Benedikt Haerlin said the early evening
announcement by Nestle, which followed yesterday's GE food
phaseout announcement by Unilever UK, represented a major victory
for European citizens who have stridently resisted attempts to be force fed
GE food by multinational agro-chemical and food companies.

"When Monsanto's first GE soya beans were shipped to Europe Nestle,
Unilever and Monsanto told us there was no way to stop having GE
ingredients in our food, three years later they have learned that there is
no way to ignore the concerns and demands of the majority of
consumers," said Haerlin.

The announcement by Nestle UK has major implications for the
company's international production system, as most of its centralised
production facilities produce for the entire European market and not for
the UK alone. "The Nestle announcement is good news for European
consumers in other European countries. However Greenpeace expects
Nestle International not to treat the French, German and Italian as second
class customers but to give them the same guarantees they have just
given to their British customers," Haerlin said.


"With Nestle and Unilever, the two biggest food producers in the world,
have now broken ranks with international agro-chemical companies like
by Monsanto, Du Pont/Pioneer, Novartis and AGrevo and started a
stampede out of GE food."

Large-scale segregation of GE and non-GE crops now seems inevitable
as major European GE-free supermarkets, representing a turnover of $150
billion, are now joined by international food giants Nestle and Unilever.
Globally operating US grain dealers such as Cargill and ADM, who
initially claimed this was impossible, have already started to react this
global market situation.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Greenpeace UK press office +44 (0) 171 865 8255/6/7/8
Benedikt Haerlin +49 171 878 0813
Mika Railo, Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 20 5249 548
Visit Greenpeace International's Genetic Engineering website.
www.greenpeace.org