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The GMO Fight Ripples Down the Food Chain
WSJ ^ | 07 Aug 2014 | Annie Gasparro

Posted on 08/08/2014 10:05:59 AM PDT by Theoria

Facing Consumer Pressure, More Firms Are Jettisoning GMOs From Their Foods

Two years ago, Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. initiated a plan to eliminate genetically modified ingredients from its ice cream, an effort to address a nascent consumer backlash and to fulfill its own environmental goals.

This fall, nearly a year behind schedule, it expects to finish phase one, affecting its flavorful "chunks and swirls" like cookie dough and caramel. The only part left to convert: the milk that makes ice cream itself. Thanks to the complexities of sourcing milk deemed free of genetically modified material, that could take five to 10 more years.

"There's a lot more that goes into it than people realize," said Rob Michalak, Ben & Jerry's director of social mission.

Two decades after the first genetically engineered seeds were sold commercially in the U.S., genetically modified organisms—the crops grown from such seeds—are the norm in the American diet, used to make ingredients in about 80% of packaged food, according to industry estimates.

Now an intensifying campaign, spearheaded by consumer and environmental advocacy groups like Green America, is causing a small but growing number of mainstream food makers to jettison genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. In addition to Ben & Jerry's, a subsidiary of Unilever PLC, General Mills Inc. this year started selling its original flavor Cheerios without GMOs. Post Holdings Inc. took the GMOs out of Grape-Nuts. Boulder Brands Inc. 's Smart Balance has converted to non-GMO for its line of margarine and other spreads. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is switching to non-GMO corn tortillas.

"Non-GMO" is one of the fastest-growing label trends on U.S. food packages, with sales of such items growing 28% last year to about $3 billion, according to market-research firm Nielsen.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food; Society
KEYWORDS: diet; food; gmo

1 posted on 08/08/2014 10:05:59 AM PDT by Theoria
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To: Theoria
Meet Monsanto's number one lobbyist: Barack Obama

A few excerpts:

After the election, and during Obama's term as president, people who had been working to label GMO food and warn the public of its huge dangers were shocked to the core. They saw Obama had been pulling a bait and switch.

The new president filled key posts with Monsanto people, in federal agencies that wield tremendous force in food issues, the USDA and the FDA

This is an extraordinary parade. It, in fact, makes Barack Obama the most GMO-dedicated politician in America.

You don't attain that position through errors or oversights. Obama was, all along, a stealth operative on behalf of Monsanto, biotech, GMOs, and corporate control of the future of agriculture.

From this perspective, Michelle Obama's campaign for home gardens and clean nutritious food suddenly looks like a diversion, a cover story floated to obscure what her husband has actually been doing.

Nor does it seem coincidental that two of the Obama's biggest supporters, Bill Gates and George Soros, purchased 900,000 and 500,000 shares of Monsanto, respectively, in 2010.

2 posted on 08/08/2014 10:43:29 AM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. (W.E. Johns)
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To: Theoria
director of social mission

Only in the PC/Green world would one find such a title and job.

3 posted on 08/08/2014 10:46:51 AM PDT by razorback-bert (Due to the high price of ammo, no warning shot will be fired.)
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To: razorback-bert
Otherwise known as pandering to the idiot masses. Maybe Nancy Pelosi has a point that many college students are too stupid for words.
4 posted on 08/08/2014 10:51:05 AM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: Theoria

Leftists and liberals. Always anti-science while claiming the opposite.


5 posted on 08/08/2014 12:02:38 PM PDT by ifinnegan
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To: Theoria

Soybeans ain’t food anyways.


6 posted on 08/08/2014 12:14:42 PM PDT by Rodamala
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To: Qiviut
And don't forget the GMO sugar beets:

Certainly, the stakes are large for companies like Monsanto Co. MON -0.03% and DuPont Co. DD +0.81% , which sell genetically engineered seeds to give crops traits like the ability to repel insects or resist weed killers. Today, more than 90% of corn, canola, soybean and sugar beet crops in the U.S. are genetically modified. Most of the produce Americans consume directly isn't GMO, but the crops are used to produce common ingredients like corn syrup, soy lecithin and more than half of the sugar consumed in the U.S.—plus the feed consumed by most of the nation's livestock.

If you look, you can probably find organic cane sugar in a store. I can buy it in bulk for LESS than a box of GMO sugar costs. Takes some of the guilt out of eating sugar. :)

7 posted on 08/08/2014 12:14:43 PM PDT by Veto! (Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
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To: Veto!

I rarely use sugar, but need it for baking. I use Stevia for coffee, tea, etc. sweetening, but it doesn’t have the same properties as sugar when baking, plus I think it has a bitter “finish” (to use a wine tasting term!). I’ll be looking for organic sugar for when I do need to use it.


8 posted on 08/08/2014 12:57:13 PM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. (W.E. Johns)
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To: Qiviut

Stevia is nice, but I don’t find it very sweet. No matter, I use very little sugar, no-guilt amounts only.

I hope you like organic sugar. It’s available in packages at my local Safeway and some other markets; can be pricey. I purchase it at a Winco, which has it in bulk bins at 99 cents/lb. It’s not pure white.

They also have wonderful unsweetened cocoa, nuts, flour — all the right stuff, some of it organic. You probably have similar markets in your area:)


9 posted on 08/08/2014 1:21:10 PM PDT by Veto! (Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
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To: Veto!

You probably have similar markets in your area:)

************************************

We do. I’m doing my very best to cook from scratch ... my own garden veggies, venison instead of beef, etc. If I do buy something that is packaged, I’m reading labels .... takes me forever to shop and I hate to do it. Right now, when the garden is producing, I rarely go.


10 posted on 08/08/2014 1:27:39 PM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. (W.E. Johns)
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To: Qiviut

Thank you for that information.

One of my greatest frustrations as a conservative/libertarian is being classified by cookie-cutter conservatives as a “liberal” because I want all GMO products labelled, and I do not want Monsanto to functionally rule world food production.

This is a freedom issue: freedom of information, freedom of access; freedom of choice.

In my opinion, Monsanto, like General Electric, is one of the worst cases of crony capitalism in US history.

An author who attended a semi-secret Monsanto meeting around 2010 quoted the VP speaking as saying, “We want to replace nature.”

I happen to prefer the Nature created, I believe, by a Creator, over an unnatural perversion fraught with epigenetic and allergenic side effects.


11 posted on 08/08/2014 1:54:29 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - JRRT)
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To: YogicCowboy

I happen to prefer the Nature created, I believe, by a Creator, over an unnatural perversion fraught with epigenetic and allergenic side effects.

*********************************

Not to make light of a serious subject, but I keep having visions of that Chiffon commercial with the line “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!” and the accompanying lightning bolt crack.


12 posted on 08/08/2014 2:08:24 PM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. (W.E. Johns)
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