Don't Mess With Sugar!

"Don't mess with sugar!"

That is the rallying cry of religious investors who will launch a major new Web-based campaign at www.DontPlantGMOBeets.org to urge more than 60 leading food, beverage, restaurant and candy companies to oppose the spring 2008 planting of genetically modified sugar beets. The genetically modified sugar beet crop would be used to make the sugar consumed in thousands of the most widely consumed food products in the U.S. (The Web site will go live immediately prior to the news event TODAY.)

The Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (IRCC) campaign will focus on such major companies as McDonald's, Campbell Soup, Kellogg, Kraft Foods, Sara Lee, PepsiCo, Wendy's and Hershey's.

News event speakers will be: Leslie Lowe, director, Energy & Environment Program, IRRC; Margaret Weber, coordinator of corporate responsibility, Adrian Dominican Sisters; and Jeffrey Smith, author of "Seeds of Deception" and "Genetic Roulette."

ABOUT ICCR

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (http://www.iccr.org) is a coalition of nearly 300 faith-based institutional investors, representing over $100 billion in invested capital. ICCR members bridge the divide between morality and markets by envisioning a civic economy that integrates ethical, environmental and social values. Inspired by faith, committed to action, ICCR members work to build a just and sustainable global community.