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.”

Whole Foods to require labels on genetically modified products - Los Angeles Times

Whole Foods to require labels on genetically modified products - Los Angeles Times

Whether such businesses are motivated by goodwill, the promise of profit from sympathetic consumers or the threat of impending legislation is unclear. But Whole Foods' move will be copied by competitors, said Scott Faber, vice president for government affairs for the advocacy organization Environmental Working Group.
"Clearly, they're going to be the first of many retailers who will require labeling as a condition of sale in their stores," he said.

But for now, tackling the crusade on genetically modified organisms will be tricky, said James Richardson, senior vice president of food research firm Hartman Strategy.

Other trends propelled by large retailers have the benefit of being easy to understand. The low-sugar push, the gluten-free movement and more "aren't hard to grasp and are tied to immediate, palpable concerns such as digestive health and weight," Richardson said.

Concerns about genetically modified food, however, are a fairly new phenomenon and are often steeped in complicated science. Until more companies choose to label products featuring modified DNA, the main consumer reaction to isolated efforts such as Whole Foods' order will be puzzlement, Richardson said.

"There's not a big interest among mainstream consumers in avoiding GMO because it requires them to have a fairly complex, intellectual sense of what it even means and why it's a problem," he said. "Sugar is much more terrifying than an abstract fear like that."

Genetically modified food labeling now mandatory by 2018 at Whole Foods Markets - Sacramento Nutrition | Examiner.com

Genetically modified food labeling now mandatory by 2018 at Whole Foods Markets - Sacramento Nutrition | Examiner.com

Genetically modified corn and soy is in most commercial packaged cold cereals unless labeled otherwise

A report by Cornucopia, “Cereal Crimes,” revealed that its 365 Corn Flakes line contained genetically modified corn. By the time the report came out in October 2011, the product had been reformulated and certified as organic. Whole Foods’ shelves carry some 3,300 private-label and branded products that are certified as non GMO, the largest selection of any grocery chain in the country. See, "Cereal Crimes: How “Natural” - Cornucopia Institute." Check out the video, "Cereal Crimes - YouTube."

The change came in response to consumer demand. For years consumers have been asking for GMO foods to be labeled. If you look at the Huffington Post article, Whole Foods GMO Labeling To Be Mandatory By 2018," you can read how a recent poll by The Huffington Post in partnership with YouGov found that a huge majority -- 82 percent -- of Americans want labels for GMO food. But the March 8, 2013 New York Times article hides the five year wait period in its second paragraph. Check out the March 8, 2013 New York Times article, "Whole Foods to Require Labels on Genetically Modified Food."

So the consumer is more likely to glide over the mention of the change happening as five years more quietly slip by in the the future. The labeling change isn't happening immediately. It has to be mandatory by 2018. For seniors old enough not to buy green bananas anymore, it's a long time. And five years seems like a lifetime to many children.