DISMAYED by a lack of response from both the Government and the food industry, a Tavistock woman has formed a group to focus the opposition of local people to genetically modified food.

Jackie Eady has formed the Tavistock Genetics Group to bring together opponents of what have been described as Frankenstein foods. She said both the Health Minister Tessa Jowell and the chairman of Unilever Guy Walker failed to reply to letters expressing her concerns about genetically modified ingredients in food.

'It appears that the Government, supermarkets and food manufacturers need constant reminding of the strength of public feeling otherwise they will continue to impose this technology on us when it is of no benefit to anyone other than the biotech giants and is certainly a threat to the environment and the Third World,' she said.

Mrs Eady said she was convinced genetically modified organisms, GMOs, had not been sufficiently tested.

'They have been rushed through and put in our food without consulting us — profit is the main motive,' she said.

Mrs Eady feared the environmental impact could be huge with pollen being able to travel very great distances. She said there was a case recently in France where bees were killed close to a field of genetically modified sunflowers.

She was also worried about the control this would give the biotech industry over not just what we eat but whether we eat.

'It's going to make farmers in the Third World completely dependent on American biotech companies,' she said.

The group has been formed to lobby supermarkets, the food industry and the Government and to alert people to the dangers of GMOs.

'Anyone who is interested in joining us would be very welcome,' she said.

The first meeting is at the Friends Meeting House in Canal Road, Tavistock on Wednesday March 17 at 7.30pm.