Whole Foods to Sell 100% non GMO Food by 2018
I applaud Whole Foods for taking on the gargantuan biotech corporation, Monsanto, by making a commitment to offer only non-GMO foods on their shelves by 2018. While some complain it's too far away, it takes time for all of their providers to re-engineer their products and find organic sources for all of their ingredients. Will be interesting to see how Monsanto pushes back on this. It's a game changer.
-
paulj
May 18, 2013 07:51 PM
If the product has corn or soy or canola, and does not make 'no gmo' claims, it most likely does contain gmo versions of those products.
Those are the main crops grown in the USA with widespread GMO seeds. GMO wheat is not. to my knowledge, grown commercially. There's is no GMO sugar cane. GMO sugar beats have been developed, but I'm not sure if they have been approved to commercial use.
Simply knowing what has been developed and approved goes a long way towards answering the question, 'does this product contain gmos or not'.
-
-
-
re: foodieX2
ipsedixit
Mar 11, 2013 10:13 AM
You've read what I wrote, but I don't think you've understood what you read.
Why is Whole Foods waiting for 2018?
If they really cared about this issue, they'd make it immediate (or within a year). Cuz, really how hard really is it for a manufacturer to make a label change?
And if it is hard, why can't Whole Foods simply have a policy where they ask the manufacturer if they use GMO (and/or if they "know" they are using GMO) and then just put a label on their store shelves, so that even if the product isn't labeled at least the shopper can make an informed decision at the time of purchase.
No, this is just a marketing ploy by Whole Foods -- a good one at that.
Who knows what's going to happen in 5 years? GMO labeling could be the law of the land. Or maybe no one will care anymore about GMO. Or maybe something newer (and better?) will come along to replace GMO so it's no longer used. Who knows.
Don't be fooled. Whole Foods does not really care about GMO -- at least not in a visceral, meaningful way.
They care about marketing their brand, and if that means saying something that is as vacuous and substantive as a rice cake, so be it.
And, y'know what?. It's worked. The post by the OP is demonstrative proof of that. Whole Foods sends out a PR about GMO labeling (and then buries the lead in the fine print, i.e. 2018), and then the hoi polloi takes and runs with it, crying, "Yeah! Whole Foods no longer will sell GMO products. Hip hip hooray!"
It's like saying, "well, I'll start eating more veggies when they go on sale and are cheaper." 'Natch.
-
-
-
johnb
Mar 10, 2013 07:35 PM
You seem to equate organic with non-GMO. They are not the same thing, and any manufacturer that chooses to reformulate to avoid GMO's will not have to automatically use organic ingredients. Most food products for many decades have not been organic, and this is before gene-splicing was developed so they couldn't have been GMO. Even if GMO labeling becomes common, I personally doubt many manufacturers will reformulate.
The GMO scare is wildly out of proportion to the actual danger.
-
-
re: calumin
sandiasingh
Mar 10, 2013 10:24 AM
I stand corrected, calumin. It will be extremely interesting to see how many labeled GMO products are sold compared to non-GMO products, which is what the entire labeling issue is about and what Monsanto is terrified of.
I'm waiting to hear of their law suit against WF :-) They've already threatened to sue Vermont if they pass a labeling law as well as the European Food Safety Council which released a research report blasting their GMO maize.
-
-
Doesn't trader joes already say that their products contain no GMOs? Is this just true for their private label, or everything they carry?
›4 Replies-
-
re: ohmyyum
-
re: ohmyyum
EWSflash
May 18, 2013 08:06 PM
I looked up their gorgeous brown tomatoes and find out they were developed in Europe by a company called something like Plant-sci-tech.com. Looks like those wonderful kumatoes are GMO, which is a terrible shame, if it's true. They had more flavor and took forever to get mushy (uh-oh).
-
re: EWSflash
paulj
May 18, 2013 08:16 PM
Why do you think they are GMO? The brief Wiki article describes them as a hybrid with a tightly controlled seed sourcing, but that does not imply they are GMO.
http://www.kumato.com/en/-ska-sorulan...
"Are Kumato® tomatoes genetically modified products?Not at all! Kumato® is the outstanding result of tireless efforts to apply traditional plant breeding techniques and natural cultivation methods."
-
-
