Butter wouldn't melt?

Lindsay Whalen finds out what's in our butter and margarine.

Whilst stopping short of calling for a boycott of Unilever, development charity ActionAid is certainly gunning for the company in its new report 'Power Hungry - six reasons to regulate agrifood corporations'. ActionAid accuses Unilever, the owner of leading brands of margarine in the UK, of activities such as land rights abuses, mercury poisoning, and paying inadequate wages and using child labour in India. (1)

Scary Dairy
Frankenstein foods appear to be creeping in through the back door. Butter and margarine sold in the UK contain genetically modified (GM) ingredients because cows are fed GM soya. For example, Monsanto's 'Roundup Ready' GM soya is grown in Argentina and transported to Europe to feed animals. Great swathes of rainforest have been cut down and indigenous people displaced to accommodate it.(13)

Greenpeace's GM Shopper Guide has identified Arla Food's Lurpak brand, Dairy Crest's Clover brand, KerryGold, Unilever's Flora, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and Olivio (now Bertolli) brands as being unable to guarantee that they are free from GM via animal feed.(5) Greenpeace claims that Unilever responded by saying it does not "believe that there is any need to remove ingredients derived from animals fed on GM crops".(5)

GM campaigners disagree though and have been campaigning hard to get supermarkets to change their ways. Genetic Engineering Network, a coalition of groups campaigning on GM, has numerous suggestions on its website for getting the message across: for example, dressing as scientists and handing shoppers cards telling them they are being experimented on. The idea is that shoppers hand the attached slips in to the supermarket if they object to being experimented on.

There are plenty of options for the GM savvy shopper though. All of the organic varieties are GM free. The two vegan options, Suma and Pure, (both made by the Matthews Group) are also GM free. Greenpeace's website also gave Benecol the GM all clear.(5) Not one of the major supermarkets received the Greenpeace all clear for dairy. The Co-op, Marks & Spencer, Safeway and Waitrose's dairy products received the middle rating, compared to Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco who received the worst rating.(5)

GREASY PALMS
You might not even be aware of its existence, but palm oil is found in one in three supermarket foods, including many well known margarines. bally traded palm oil comes from Indonesia and Malaysia, and its production is a major catalyst in the destruction of these countries' tropical rainforests. Indonesian law has also failed to recognise customary-rights land and huge areas of community forest have been handed over to oil palm plantation companies. Unable to practise their way of life, indigenous people are left with no livelihood or tied into plantations as wage labour. For more information consult Ethical Consumer issue 89. Even the most dedicated ethical consumer would be hard-pressed to avoid this widespread ingredient. In EC89 Matthews Foods and Unilever's margarines were singled out as likely to contain palm oil. Friends of the Earth is calling for UK consumers to pressure companies into addressing the negative social and environmental impacts of palm oil trade.

THE DAIRY TRADE
Buying the vegan options, Pure and Suma, is the only way to ensure that cows that are not exploited. Cows produce milk to feed their young, n order for us to eat dairy, calves are snatched from their mothers when they are just one day old and fed milk replacers (including cattle blood).(2)

With intensive production techniques modern dairy cows produce 35 litres of milk a day.(14) This is over three times more than 50 years ago.(14) After 10 months of lactating, often while standing on concrete floors or crammed into massive mud lots, cows are artificially inseminated again, in a cruel cycle that wears them out so they are useless and sent to slaughter after five years.(2) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals produce a 'milk sucks' website which includes information on a dairy free lifestyle.

If you can't bear a dairy free diet, buying organic does ensure that cows are treated more humanely. Cows for organic production are fed grass and cereals rather than artificial feeds which stimulate milk production. They are kept outside when it's warm, and inside with comfortable bedding when it's not. Organic cows are also treated with homoeopathic and herbal medicines to treat disease, and are given antibiotics only when strictly necessary and not as a matter of course.

Anchor butter claims that it is 'free range' and this means that the cows are kept outside in green fields all year round and that they are not fed concentrated feedstock. However, there are no independent standards to govern production of butter, and this is nowhere near as comprehensive as organic. Readers should see the feature on page 28 to find out which animal welfare labels are comprehensive.

BUTTER OR MARGARINE?
Choosing between the two can be tricky for health conscious ethical consumers. Butter is relatively unprocessed as it must be at least 80% fat, and the only additive allowed is salt. In the 1980s fears over the health impact of saturated fats led people to switch from butter to margarine. Margarine must also be at least 80% oils and fats, but a range of additions is allowed, such as whey, vegetable colour, vitamins, flavouring and emulsifiers. Hydrogenated vegetable oils or fats are used in margarine to extend its shelf life.(4) They are created by bubbling hydrogen through the oils to turn them into solid fat. (4) In the 1990s it was discovered that trans fats in margarine could also raise cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease. (4)

As many people prefer the taste of butter, manufacturers have developed a range of butter blends, but the amount of saturated fat varies considerably. Despite having similar amounts of fat, Tesco Organic Buttery spread has nearly three times as much saturated fat as the Asda You'd Better Believe It. (3) Which? Extra also found that the main ingredient in olive oil spreads was actually vegetable oil.3 Marks & Spencer Olive Spread Made With Extra Virgin Olive Oil was found to contain only 4% of extra virgin olive oil. (3)

References

1 'Power Hungry - six reasons to regulate agrifood corporations,' ActionAid, 01/05
2 'Milk: A cruel and unhealthy product,' PETA 02/05
3 Healthy Spreads, Which? Extra 06/01
4 Extending Shelf Life, Which? Extra 04/04
5 Greenpeace GM Shopper Guide 21/2/05
8 Who Owns Whom 2004
9 Email from Innovative Minds 02/05
10 www.responsibleshopper.org 02/05
13 The Ecologist, 03/05
14 www.milksucks.co.uk 03/05