NCGA Urges All Vendor Partners to Support GMO Labeling Initiatives

      Continued From Last Post.

    As just mentioned, the National Cooperative Grocers Association5 (NGCA),
a business services cooperative that represents 134 retail food co-ops across
the US, sent out a letter on February 28 restating its support of GMO
labeling, urging consumers to contact manufacturers directly with their
concerns, and encouraging their vendor partners to “consider the kind of
statement and negative impact that an organization makes by supporting or
donating to campaigns designed to prevent the labeling of GMOs, whether on a
state or national level.”

    This is yet another sign that retailers and food manufacturers who
opposed prop 37 have indeed been paying the price. Take the Cheerios fiasco,
for example. General Mills spent over $1.1 million to deceive their customers
by defeating Prop 37, and the backlash was significant. When General Mills'
Cheerios brand released a Facebook app last December asking "fans" to "show
what Cheerios means to you,” thousands used the app to express their disgust
over the company's betrayal.

    I believe we can expect far fewer brands to engage in biotech’s fight in
future state initiatives. They really were not expecting the consumer
backlash that followed in the wake of Prop 37, and are likely to be far less
willing to take another bullet. The NGCA’s letter to their vendor partners
reads in part:

        “There was substantial consumer backlash from manufacturer financial
support of campaigns to prevent GMO labeling in California. Now, campaigns
calling for state level labeling of GMOs are active in a growing number of
many other states. Many NCGA co-ops are supporting these campaigns and are
also considering one or more of the following actions related to GMOs in food
on a local level: discontinuing or boycotting items from companies that
support antilabeling campaigns or whose products contain common GMO
ingredients; excluding items that contain common GMO ingredients from store-
level promotions and new item programs; and/or shifting more of their product
assortment focus to certified organic brands.

        ...We believe GMO labeling will be a reality in the coming years and
hope your organization will join us by showing leadership in this area
through support of consumers' right to information to make informed purchase
decisions.”

Organic Consumers Association Calls on Whole Foods to Move Up Labeling
Timeline

    Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now! who
served as co-chair of Prop 37, has criticized Whole Foods timeline, saying
“Americans need labeling of GMO foods today, not five years down the road,”6
adding that “had they supported Prop 37 sooner, Americans may have labeling
right now.”

    Similarly, the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) issued a response to
Whole Foods’ plan on March 117 stating that, while it is encouraged by the
plan, the five-year timeline is too long. The OCA urges Whole Foods to move
up its labeling deadline to July 2015, and to “take the lead in the organic
industry to end deceptive labeling practices by requiring all the stores'
products that include the word 'natural' in their labeling or packaging to be
GMO-free.” According to the OCA press release:

        “Washington's I-522 is expected to pass in November 2013, becoming
the first statewide mandatory GMO labeling law. The law establishes July 2015
as the deadline for compliance. Whole Foods Markets already complies with the
U.K.'s mandatory GMO labeling law in its seven stores in that country. Whole
Foods came under fire last year when the company dragged its feet in
supporting Proposition 37, California's Right to Know GMO Labeling citizens'
initiative. In October, CEO John Mackey confirmed in a blog post that Whole
Foods stores knowingly sell Monsanto's genetically modified corn, without
labeling it.”

      Continued
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Labeling of Genetically Engineered (GE) Ingredients Mandatory!

By Dr. Mercola

    Whole Foods recently announced the health food giant will make labeling
of genetically engineered (GE) ingredients mandatory in its American and
Canadian stores by 2018.

    (Whole Foods stores in Great Britain already require GE foods to be
labeled.) Many expect other retailers to follow suit.

    Despite the five-year deadline, which may seem long for some, this
announcement is incredibly encouraging and represents a major sign that all
the efforts most of you put into the Proposition 37 campaign have paid off.

We may have lost that battle but this, and other signs, strongly suggest we
are winning the war.

    Prop 37 raised an enormous amount of awareness about genetically
engineered (GE) foods (a.k.a. genetically engineered organisms or GMO’s).
Many Americans didn’t even know they existed prior to the California campaign
to require GE foods to be labeled.

    The Prop 37 campaign also ushered conversations about food to the front
pages of mainstream media. Over the past year, we’ve not only seen an
increase in the number of stories on genetically engineered foods, more
people are now also talking about other truth-in-labeling issues, and food
safety in general.

    People are waking up to the fact that we really don’t understand what
we’re eating anymore, and they’re taking control of their food again. Now,
other states, including Washington State and Missouri, are taking up the
baton to label GE foods. In all, 22 states now have some sort of pending
labeling legislation.

    Seeing the writing on the wall, the National Cooperative Grocers
Association (NGCA)1 recently wrote a letter to their members that now also
urges food manufacturers to stop funding or opposing GMO labeling. This is an
absolutely stupendous victory for our side that finally vindicates the hard
work so many of you put into this effort last year.

Whole Foods Responds to Consumer Demand for GMO Labeling

    Whole Foods Co-Chief Executive Walter Robb recently told the Los Angeles

Times:2

        "This is an issue whose time has come. With cases like horse meat
discovered in the U.K., plastic in milk in China, the recalls of almond and
peanut butter in the U.S., customers have a fundamental right to know what's
in their food.... 'The government has not been willing to take on this issue,
so it's going to have to happen differently.'"

    According to a February 2012 poll of potential voters in the 2012 US
elections, 90 percent of responders were in favor of labeling GE foods.

There’s really NO reason not to, aside from protecting the biotech industry’s
profits. Americans are already responding favorably to those few products
that are labeled. A. C. Gallo, president of Whole Foods, told the New York

Times:3

        “We’ve seen how our customers have responded to the products we do
have labeled. 'Some of our manufacturers say they’ve seen a 15 percent
increase in sales of products they have labeled [non-GMO].'”

    According to the featured article:4

        “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.'"

    It’s worth remembering that CA Prop 37 failed to be passed by just a few
percentage points back in November, even though the food and biotech industry
spent five times more money (a total of $46 million) on its propaganda
campaign than the supporters of the measure. That’s really a good indication
of how difficult this fight is for the industry. People want to know what
they’re eating, and convincing Americans to lay aside their concerns about GE
foods requires a lot of money and effort.

    It’s a challenge they can overcome, no doubt. But people are increasingly
seeing through the lame excuses, such as not wanting you to be “confused” by
the labels, or that labeling would raise food prices, or that labeling is
unnecessary because it’s “just as safe” as its conventional counterparts.
It’s all nonsense, and fortunately, it’s not flying as well as it used to.

     Continued in Next Post

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Story at-a-glance!

    Whole Foods has announced it will make labeling of genetically engineered
(GE) ingredients mandatory in its American and Canadian stores by 2018. Many
expect other retailers to follow suit

    About 20 major food companies, including Wal-Mart, recently gathered for
a meeting in Washington to discuss potential lobbying for a national GMO
labeling program

    The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) recently announced the creation
of a new nationwide campaign called the Organic Retail and Consumer Alliance
(ORCA). The mission of the new alliance includes exposing and eliminating the
misleading practice of “natural” labeling and marketing

    Organic food and products, by law and by third-party certification, are

produced without the use of synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers,
animal drugs, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), irradiation,
nanoparticles, or sewage sludge, whereas so-called “natural” products are
completely unregulated

    A critical assessment of the consequences of commercial cultivation of GE
plants in the US for 20 years advises the EU to NOT follow the path of the
US, as it has had profound negative impacts on farmers, seed markets, and
consumers. Among the eight final recommendations, the report concludes that
“There must be no large-scale, commercial cultivation of GE herbicide-
tolerant or insecticide-producing crops,” and that all potential situations
must be retrievab

Thank You Dr. Mercola

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