When I set out to research the initiative, I thought I'd end up with a clear and obvious answer about how I felt about it—and what the science says. I was wrong.
Franz Family Bakeries offers a "100% Natural, 100% Whole Grain" loaf of bread, touting its "premium Northwest grown & milled ingredients" and lack of high-fructose corn syrup. We asked Franz about GMOs in their bread, and they "do use cornmeal, soybean oil and canola oil in our products, and most of the corn, soybeans, and sources of canola oil are GMO, so most certainly these ingredients would be genetically modified."
Even the crazily named I.M. Healthy Chunky SoyNut Butter, which announces on the label that it contains non-GMO soybeans, doesn't guarantee that other ingredients in the same jar, such as corn-derived maltodextrin, aren't genetically engineered. And the boxed gluten-free cake mix from Cherrybrook Kitchen contains some ingredients that "are not GMO-free," the company says.
This isn't to pick on these companies at all, or the groovy grocers that carry them; it's just to point out how ubiquitous GMO ingredients are. And if I-522 passes this fall, we'll be reminded wherever we shop how common they've become. Or, on the other hand, the measure could prompt more food producers to eradicate GMOs from their ingredients to avoid the GMO label altogether.
The Seattle Times came out strongly against it, saying that "there is no reliable evidence crops containing genetically modified organisms... pose any risks." The Washington Association of Wheat Growers is opposed as well, saying that mandatory labeling of GMO foods "that are indistinguishable from foods produced through traditional methods would mislead consumers by falsely implying differences where none exist."
No comments:
Post a Comment