Last Friday, Whole Foods Market announced its intent to label all genetically modified foods in its stores by 2018, reports Norbert O'Hare of Examiner.com.
Whole Foods is the first major U.S. company to make such a move, reports Casey Farrar of The Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire. Study and debate over whether eating genetically modified organisms could be harmful to people has been underway for years, with little conclusive evidence in either direction, writes Farrar. More than 60 countries have required labeling of GMO foods, but for U.S. consumers who want to know whether they’re eating foods whose genes have been manipulated, the only indication currently available is that foods labeled “USDA organic” cannot undergo genetic engineering.
The decision by Whole Foods comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Justice's closure of its three-year antitrust investigation into Monsanto, the biotech giant whose genetic traits are embedded in over 90 percent of America’s soybean crop and more than 80 percent of corn, reports Lina Kahn of Salon.
Originally a chemical company that produced plastics and pesticides, Monsanto turned to biotech in the 1980s by developing genetic traits and licensing them to companies, big and small, that conducted the actual breeding of seeds and handled sales to farmers, writes Kahn. In the mid-1990s, Monsanto adopted a new strategy and began acquiring many of the independent seed businesses that had been the prime customers for its traits. Over the next decade Monsanto spent more than $12 billion to buy at least 30 such businesses.
Kahn opines that the public will suffer the costs of Monsanto’s capture of almost total control over much of the U.S. seed business. Since 2001 the company has more than doubled the price of soybean and corn seeds, whose crops are used in foods ranging from cereal and pizza to chocolate and soda. In 2008 Monsanto officials said farmers should expect seed prices to keep rising.
We wrote about Monsanto in February when the company was involved in a Supreme Court dispute with an Indiana farmer over a claimed violation of a planting agreement between the company and farmers.
Whole Foods is the first major U.S. company to make such a move, reports Casey Farrar of The Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire. Study and debate over whether eating genetically modified organisms could be harmful to people has been underway for years, with little conclusive evidence in either direction, writes Farrar. More than 60 countries have required labeling of GMO foods, but for U.S. consumers who want to know whether they’re eating foods whose genes have been manipulated, the only indication currently available is that foods labeled “USDA organic” cannot undergo genetic engineering.
The decision by Whole Foods comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Justice's closure of its three-year antitrust investigation into Monsanto, the biotech giant whose genetic traits are embedded in over 90 percent of America’s soybean crop and more than 80 percent of corn, reports Lina Kahn of Salon.
Originally a chemical company that produced plastics and pesticides, Monsanto turned to biotech in the 1980s by developing genetic traits and licensing them to companies, big and small, that conducted the actual breeding of seeds and handled sales to farmers, writes Kahn. In the mid-1990s, Monsanto adopted a new strategy and began acquiring many of the independent seed businesses that had been the prime customers for its traits. Over the next decade Monsanto spent more than $12 billion to buy at least 30 such businesses.
Kahn opines that the public will suffer the costs of Monsanto’s capture of almost total control over much of the U.S. seed business. Since 2001 the company has more than doubled the price of soybean and corn seeds, whose crops are used in foods ranging from cereal and pizza to chocolate and soda. In 2008 Monsanto officials said farmers should expect seed prices to keep rising.
We wrote about Monsanto in February when the company was involved in a Supreme Court dispute with an Indiana farmer over a claimed violation of a planting agreement between the company and farmers.
No comments:
Post a Comment