|
GM-Free Manufacturers Campaign
When it comes to the GM issue, most food companies are motivated more by economics than by food safety. Many food manufacturers worldwide have changed to non-GM ingredients to appeal to consumer demand--make a change or lose the customer. Therefore, you as a buyer are at the top of the food chain and can move the market.
For example, when McDonald’s, Proctor & Gamble (manufacturers of Pringles), and the other major potato buyers decided not to sell Monsanto's GM New Leaf potato, it was soon taken off the market. McDonald’s and others doomed Monsanto's potato because they wanted to satisfy consumer demands. We have that power.
In the U.S., Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats, and Trader Joe's announced that GMOs would be removed from their store brands. Gerber baby foods, as well as scores of health food products, have similarly changed their ingredients.
The Power of Targeting the Food Industry
When a store or brand removes GM ingredients, it has a ripple effect through the industry. After a supermarket chain commits to eliminate GMOs, they usually send out a letter to their suppliers who, in turn, contact their suppliers, and so on. A store may have hundreds of food items, each with a list of ingredients. Hundreds or thousands of businesses can be affected, all the way back to the farm level.
Executives of large food companies may have a more immediate influence on the GMO marketplace than government. This was exhibited in the UK in 1998, where the head of Iceland Frozen Foods sparked a revolution. After receiving several letters expressing concerns about GM foods, the company's chairman Malcolm Walker decided to find out what all the fuss was about. After learning about the issues, he ordered that GM soy and corn be removed from the company's house brand. Brochures denouncing GM foods were handed out at his chain of stores. Within half a year, the rest of the UK food industry followed suit. Executives from other chains acknowledged the influence of Iceland Frozen Foods on their decisions.
Food Companies Vulnerable to Recalls
When the presence of genetically engineered StarLink corn - not approved for human consumption - was discovered in food products in 2000, companies that spent millions in costly recalls began questioning their support for biotech and even publicly challenged loose government policies.
In November 2002, the food industry got another heads up. Grains of corn that had been engineered to produce a vaccine for fighting a diarrhea-causing virus in pigs was accidentally mixed into 500,000 bushels of soybeans in a Nebraska grain facility. The USDA ordered the soy to be destroyed and the corn's maker, Prodigene, to pay the $2.8 million bill. The fact that the contamination was even discovered was based on several coincidences and could easily have been missed. News reports of the incident also revealed that two months earlier, Prodigene had to destroy 155 acres of corn in Iowa, because wind-blown pollen from its drug-producing corn may have contaminated that as well.
Food companies realized that they had narrowly missed another StarLink. They are now clearly concerned. They realize how vulnerable they are to another StarLink-type recall and they have some idea that the government is not adequately protecting consumers. The time may be perfect to create a U.S. food industry landslide. Even one large company changing its policy could make GM foods unpopular very quickly. That is the thinking behind GE Food Alert, a coalition of seven organizations that have targeted America's largest food manufacturer, Kraft foods. Their campaign, described at www.krafty.org, is rallying consumers to contact Kraft, to ask the company to take out GM ingredients.
What You Can Do
1. Educate yourself, and stay informed.
A good place to start is with this website, as well as the Institute’s publications, which present a compelling case for the dangers of GM foods. Plus sign up for our newsletter, Spilling the Beans, to stay up-to-date on the issues.
2. Educate and inspire others you know.
We have found that the best way to do this is to share one or more of the Institute’s publications with them.
3. Buy non-GM food at the grocery store. Click here to learn more.
4. Avoid GM food at restaurants. Click here to learn more.
5. If you work for a food manufacturer considering converting, partially or completely, to GM-free and need recommendations on how to do this, email your request by clicking here.
6. Email or write food companies to share your concerns about GM foods. If you have stopped buying a food brand due to GMO issues, definitely let the company know. Click here to see a sample downloadable letter/email.
|
|
Email
Print