Whole Foods says it will require labels on genetically modified ingredients : Business

Whole Foods says it will require labels on genetically modified ingredients : Business

Monsanto referred questions Friday to the Food Marketing Institute, an industry trade group.

“If FDA wants to mandate this, we’d support it,” said Heather Garlich, an institute spokeswoman. “We don’t want a patchwork of laws.”

The biotechnology industry’s leading trade group, BIO, of which Monsanto is a member, echoed that position.

“If Whole Foods chooses to voluntarily label these products as GM for the consumers who shop at their store, that’s their choice — as long as those labels do not imply that those products are somehow unsafe or less healthy,” said Karen Batra, a spokeswoman, in an email Friday. “That would be scientifically inaccurate, to say the least, but certainly false and misleading.”

The biotechnology and food industries have long held that labeling would scare consumers away from genetically modified products, which have not been linked to any food safety or health issues. The American Medical Association, for one, has said there is no scientific justification for labeling genetically modified foods.

“Anti-technology activists and organic food companies are using labeling efforts as a step toward reducing GE (genetically engineered) technology,” said Batra, the biotech trade group spokeswoman. “Certainly we are concerned because this is a strategy that takes advantage of consumers by making them fearful of a technology that has enormous economic and environmental benefits.”