RODDICK SOWS SEEDS OF DISSENT

THE Body Shop yesterday launched a new range of products made from Cannabis
Sativa, or industrial hemp, and immediately came under attack from the
campaigners who embarrassed McDonald's last year in England's longest libel
case.

Dave Morris, one of the "McLibel" two, will today lead a picket on the Body
Shop's Oxford Street store in London, handing out leaflets accusing Anita
Roddick's shops of damaging the environment and the world's poor, despite
the company's claims to the contrary.

He and other members of the London Greenpeace anarchist group, an
independent organisation not connected with the international environmental
campaign, claim that Body Shop is an example of "green consumerism" which
is no better than other consumerism.

The leaflet, headed "What's wrong with the Body Shop", says: "The world's
problems will only be tackled by curbing such consumerism - one of the
fundamental causes of world poverty, environmental destruction and social
alienation." It also airs criticisms about the "naturalness" of Body Shop
products, its animal testing policy and its attitudes to trade unions.

A spokeswoman yesterday dismissed the accusations, which she said were
first made four years ago and had already been rebutted. "While we are not
the perfect company, we don't test on animals, we do trade beneficially
with indigenous peoples, we act to limit environmental impact and we
respect the human rights of our staff," she said.

Earlier, Ms Roddick, the founder of the company, was accused of "making a
joke of drug-taking" as she handed out cannabis seeds to launch the new
range of moisturising products made from hemp.

Ann Widdecombe, a former Home Office minister, said Ms Roddick was being
"wholly irresponsible" by introducing the products because they are made
from the Cannabis Sativa plant.

In reply, Ms Roddick said: "With all the current problems our farmers face
I'd expect political leaders like you to support hemp-growing."

Ms Roddick handed out the seeds but warned that anyone planting them would
be breaking the law and could be arrested. It can be grown only with a
licence from the Home Office.

The industrial hemp plant contains only a fraction of THC, the psychoactive
ingredient in marijuana, but the two plants are from the same family and
growing hemp could lead to prosecution under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act.

However, the seed packets come with the warning: "Do not attempt to use the
plant as a narcotic. You would need to smoke a joint the size of a
telegraph pole to get high."

Hemp was one of the most environmentally friendly, easily grown and
versatile natural products, Ms Roddick said, but it had been the subject of
a smear campaign because of its association with the drugs culture:
"Ignorance confuses hemp with marijuana, a member of the same plant genus."

She added that she would be backing British growers for more freedom to
cultivate the product and for more European subsidy.