Whole Foods Market Caves to Monsanto

WholeFoodsMarketAfter 12 years of battling to stop Monsanto's genetically-engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation's organic farmland, the biggest retailers of "natural" and "organic" foods in the U.S., including Whole Foods Market (WFM), Organic Valley and Stonyfield Farm, have agreed to stop opposing mass commercialization of GE crops, like Monsanto's controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa.

In exchange for dropping their opposition, WFM has asked for "compensation" to be paid to organic farmers for "any losses related to the contamination of his crop." Under current laws, Genetically-Modified Organisms (GMOs) are not subject to any pre-market safety testing or labeling. WFM is abandoning its fight with biotech companies in part because two thirds of the products they sell are not certified organic anyway, but are really conventional, chemical-intensive and foods that may contain GMOs and that they market as "natural" despite this. Most consumers don't know the difference between "natural" and "certified organic" products. "Natural" products can come from crops and animals fed nutrients containing GMOs. "Certified Organic" products are GMO-free. WFM and their main distributor, United Natural Foods, maximize profits by selling products labeled "natural" at premium organic prices.  (A typographical error in the second sentence of this story was subsequently corrected.  We regret this minor error.)

Comments

A big problem in the US is food is not even ALLOWED to be labeled non-GMO. Organic is the only label you can use to infer this, and Monsanto is working on that too! (to allow GMO to be certified organic)

Poor countries SHOULD refuse GMO seed if only because they aren't allowed to plant their own grown seeds next year as they are patented. So they would be locked into getting their seeds from Monsanto every year.

We might as well sign our children over to big money Start poisoning our children from the get go. More money for health care, so much for promoting health.

Was this report written in the future? It has a byline date of 3 days from now.

So someone misread/didn't read the date. Why call them "dummy"? I'm sure you've made such mistakes in your life, "Anonymous."

There's no reason to be disrespectful here.

Won't be shopping there anymore. It sickens me that a major "organic" grocery chain has sold out.

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