SLAPPING STICKERS ON FOOD PACKAGES TO WARN OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED SOYA WAS NOT A CRIME, A MAGISTRATE RULED YESTERDAY Agnet Aug. 28, Aug.. 27/98 The Guardian (London)

A U.K. food protester who stuck labels on packets of Batchelors Beanfeast to warn supermarket customers that they contained genetically modified ingredients was, according to this story, cleared by north London magistrates yesterday.

Shannon Coggins, 32, of Kingshill in Somerset, was charged under a law introduced two years ago to prosecute people who attempt to blackmail companies and endanger the public by meddling with food. After Haringey magistrates cleared her of "making it appear that foods had been tampered with", Coggins, a professional shiatsu practitioner, was quoted as saying, "It's been a shambles from start to finish." The court heard that she was arrested in Sainsbury's Haringey store in March, after she had stuck labels on to five packets of the SOYA-based dried meal. The labels read:

"Contaminated with genetically-engineered soya". In her bag were found leaflets about genetically engineered food which she had planned, she said, to distribute outside the supermarket. In court, the prosecution asked her:

"You are concerned about the effect of genetically modified soya. You consider it to be a product which deserves further investigation. Is that because you are concerned that it might be hazardous for people's health?" Coggins agreed, and added: "I want people to make up their own minds. I want them to have the information to do that."

The prosecution pointed out to the court that the Batchelors packet indicated with an asterisk beside the list of ingredients that it contained genetically modified soya. Coggins replied: "If you've been buying this packet of Beanfeast for the last five years, you wouldn't actually read the label." Dismissing the charge, the magistrate said that, although he considered Coggins's actions wrong, he had heard no evidence which convinced him that she had intended to cause alarm and anxiety in the general public.