Biggest Bavarian brewer bans GM from beer

Biggest Bavarian brewer bans GM from beer

www.thelocal.de

Soon Oettinger bottles will bear the “GM free” symbol, as production using the new ingredients begins straight away, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Monday.

The move was in response to requests made by consumers for more transparency from the brewery, owner and CEO Dirk Kollmar said.

He added that the brewery considered it an extension of Germany's 1516 Rheinheitsgebot or beer purity law, which denotes beer can only be made from water, hops, malt and yeast.

Oettinger is an unusual brewery in that it does not belong to the beer industry's umbrella organisation. This means that

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European citizens seem to be winning the fight against GM ingredients compared to their North American counterparts as I am constantly coming across news from Europe where GM products are being banned or avoided.

The war isn't over but they sure have won some battles.

Personally, I love German beer and drink it quite often and will purchase this product if made available here in Canada. I wish all food and beverage manufacturers would avoid using GM ingredients in their products but unfortunately the system is rigged where these huge corporations are all related in some way under a larger "umbrella" so it's almost impossible to avoid the use of GM ingredients.

This company may have just found a great way to boost their sales while providing a less harmful product...this is good marketing and I hope more companies follow their example.

www.thelocal.de
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I think this is great. I love German beer as well, But Canada also has some great beers!

Once you start messing with beer, your cross the line.

Well good for them! Beer isn't just a beverage, it's an institution! It's far too important to ever be meddled with by the likes of Monsanto!

I actually watched two evenings worth of video in Geography about how Beer founded the world...and as funny as it sounded at first, damned if Beer isn't proven to have existed and been a base for many things in society, clear back to the hunter/gatherer days. Amazing stuff....

Nothing to trifle with in GMO nonsense. Oh goodness no.

reply to post by Corruption Exposed

Yay, go Oettinger!

BTW, Oettinger is sold at my local Lidl supermarket and is one of the cheaper beers available.

This is good news for beer lovers everywhere.

OMG, I had not even thought about BEER being targeted! That was a real "DUH" moment! Of course they would target the beer drinkers with the gmo craap!

Good for Germany!!!

Good for them! I wish more people would push for this in the US. If you stop and think about it, it will blow your mind how many industries the GMO's are in.

Just keep letting everyone you know, know about it! Monsanto is going to fight harder here in the US with so many other countries actually banning the GMO's.

Na dann Prost Oettinger ... best news all day!

Hands off the beer!!

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


There are quite a few German breweries that are run by the 1516 Rheinheitsgebot.

I've always told my friends that I will never be an alcoholic because I usually buy German bier.

I couldn’t afford buying that all the time!

Forced moderation because of finacial constraints.

If I won the lottery, well, that could very well be the end of my liver.

The U.S. is going through somewhat of a renaissance in the brewing industry.

Small Craft Breweries are springing up all over the place. About half a dozen have opened in my area alone over the past couple of years.

These smaller Craft brewers, in general, care more about the quality of ingredients they use.

This also gives us a greater variety of Beer styles and flavours. (Unlike the weak tea coloured, flavourless, mass produced rubbish I could mention.)

So I humbly suggest we all help our local economies by going out today and partaking of a few glasses of local brew.

Originally posted by antar
OMG, I had not even thought about BEER being targeted! That was a real "DUH" moment! Of course they would target the beer drinkers with the gmo craap!

Good for Germany!!!

I have always been suspicious about the "safety" of beer consumption.

The first thing that I would think about was whether or not they filter the water to eliminate the fluoride, then I switched from cans to bottles due to the Bisphenol-A in the cans, and I have always been confident that GM ingredients are used in brewing beer.

There are a few micro-breweries around here that boast about using filtered water and organic ingredients, but they do not claim them to be GMO free. I have tried these beers and they are not all that bad, but they are very expensive. I would love to find a beer that is proven to be GMO free, fluoride free, and affordable.

reply to post by TDawgRex


Luckily I have access to various well priced beers that are brewed in accordance to the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. Regrettably most these beers come in can format which brings me back to the Bisphenol-A concern I previously mentioned in my last post.

These beers sell for so cheap that it makes me wonder whether or not they are actually as "pure" as they claim to be. GMO wasn't around in 1516 and it's very probable that those who claim to be in accordance to this law are using GMO products as long as the products fall within the allowed ingredients (water, barley and hops). The Barley and Hops could very well be genetically modified.

This is GREAT NEWS!!!!!!

Whole Foods plans to have everything Labeled as gmo or non-gmo by 2018. Now these guys are stepping it up. It's going to be a global movement that will be catastrophic for Monsanto. Anything that brings down Satan's corporation is a winner in my book.

Monsanto will just show up and drop a corn kernel in one of their brews and sue them for patent infringement. But seriously, this is great news going along with Whole Foods decision to start labeling GMO's by 2018. We need to get behind these companies doing this and support them, buy their products, tell your friends etc. The more and more people do their part, buy organic and support companies opposing GMO's, the better chance we have of beating these people. This isn't over, this is a war on our food, which is why this is so important for everyone to get involved as this effects all of us. The truth will prevail.

reply to post by Merlin Lawndart


Hopefully "the word of mouth" will help get this message across. As you mentioned though, Monsatan and the rest of it's underlings will do anything within their power to limit the availability of non GMO products but it certainly is a noble cause to do our best to educate people about the evils of GM ingredients in our food and beverage supply.

We must keep up the good fight and never give up

reply to post by Corruption Exposed


Yea, I worry about that to concerning US beer and GMO. But all my German beer comes in bottles.

WooHoo! Hoisting a Paulaner Kyrstal Wiesse to ya!

reply to post by TDawgRex


I'm glad that you have a variety of good German bottled beer to choose from. My favorite beer is Konig Ludwig and was available when I lived on the West Coast (of Canada) but now that I am back out East this beer is not available in my area...

The things I would do for an ice cold bottle of Konig Ludwig...

Hopefully this company in my OP will start a new trend and others will follow.

I wish we could get rid of all GM food here in the US, or at least be NOTIFIED when we are eating it!

I mean, seriously, some of our food is so modified that it has HALF the nutritional value it used to.

Sure, we have a nice round firm tomato that is consistent in color, but it is TASTELESS and has HALF the nutrition of just 10 years ago!