5.6 Genetic modification
What policies does the company establish with regard to GMOs in its own brand products?
About the data
This metric is part of Eticonsum's research study on the evaluation of companies in the Retail Food sector on environmental, social and ethical issues.
Eticonsum is a non-profit market research agency specialising in ESG (environment, social, governance) corporate performance applied to consumer insights.
We research and analyse the ethical market in the FMCG sector and evaluate the environmental and social performance of companies in order to help both conscious consumers to decide according to their values and companies to compete on ethical reputation.
With this metric we aim to publicise and compare the performance of the main distributors in Spain in relation to the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the animal feed of their own-brand products.
We are not referring to the distributors' fresh or packaged finished products, which by law must not contain GMOs. In this respect, statements such as "No products of our brands contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs)" are meaningless. What we evaluate is the animal feed of fresh products (meat, poultry, fish,...). Excluded from this section would be certified "organic" products, which by law should not be exposed to genetically modified feed.
As Greenpeace points out in its report "Hooked on meat", in Brazil and Argentina more than 95% of soya is GM, which is accompanied by intensive use of herbicides and other dangerous chemical inputs.
Pesticide use per unit area has increased by more than 170% in both countries since the 1990s. The result is not only large monoculture plots with extremely reduced biodiversity, but also massive use of pesticides with a high probability of damaging the health of farm workers and populations living in the vicinity.
Eticonsum is a non-profit market research agency specialising in ESG (environment, social, governance) corporate performance applied to consumer insights.
We research and analyse the ethical market in the FMCG sector and evaluate the environmental and social performance of companies in order to help both conscious consumers to decide according to their values and companies to compete on ethical reputation.
With this metric we aim to publicise and compare the performance of the main distributors in Spain in relation to the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the animal feed of their own-brand products.
We are not referring to the distributors' fresh or packaged finished products, which by law must not contain GMOs. In this respect, statements such as "No products of our brands contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs)" are meaningless. What we evaluate is the animal feed of fresh products (meat, poultry, fish,...). Excluded from this section would be certified "organic" products, which by law should not be exposed to genetically modified feed.
As Greenpeace points out in its report "Hooked on meat", in Brazil and Argentina more than 95% of soya is GM, which is accompanied by intensive use of herbicides and other dangerous chemical inputs.
Pesticide use per unit area has increased by more than 170% in both countries since the 1990s. The result is not only large monoculture plots with extremely reduced biodiversity, but also massive use of pesticides with a high probability of damaging the health of farm workers and populations living in the vicinity.
Formula
Answers are calculated as a weighted average. To find a weighted average of a group of numbers that have been normalized to the same 0-10 scale, you simply multiply each number by its weight (percentage) and add them up.