http://www.infowars.com/is-a-secret-plan-by-big-food-behind-whole-foods-decision-to-label-gmo/
There seems to be more to "Whole Foods" decision to label GMOs than what appears. Their 5 year plan to label genetically modified ingredients is indeed a cautious victory that is only one step in taking these dangerous and untested GM foods off not only the plates of America but Canada as well and stop the biotech industry from their global takeover of the world's food supply.
Though grassroots efforts and consumer activism including great investigative reports done by Infowars and Organic Spies- has played a huge role in pressuring the grocer to change their course and further research they are responding to the pressure, Biotech and Big Food interests teamed to spend a whopping $45 million to defeat California's Prop 37(Aaron Dykes the writer of this article has a video report talking about this and is posted in the article and you should watch it)
But now it seems the biggest companies are now trying to avoid the cost of funding future fights against GMO labelling which could spread to 20 states or at the local level and even beyond
and It seems now Big Food is now for LABELLING. Impossible yes but it appears in January of 2013 Wal-Mart, General Mills, Pepsi and the rest of them and other major food companies met with the FDA in secret to lobby for wait for it... MANDATORY federal GMO labeling law!!
Ronnie Cummins of Organic Consumers Association who exposed these meetings posed the question "Is Big Food cozying up to the FDA so they can derail the growing organic and anti-GMO movement, and finagle a federal labeling law so toothless it won't be worth the ink it takes to sign it?
Then Washington State's labeling initiative in mind, 20 of the biggest food companies including Wal-Mart, Pepsi and ConAgra, met with labeling advocates at the Meridian Institute in January to discuss consumer uprisings over GMO. A report in the New York Times:
"The big food companies found themselves in an uncomfortable position after Prop.37 and they're talking amongst themselves about alternatives to merely replaying that fight over and over again said Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University who attended the meeting.
"They spent a lot of money, got lot of bad press that propelled the issue into the national debate and alienated some of their customer base, as well as raising issues with some trading partners"-Said Mr. Benbrook, who does work on sustainable agriculture"
SO why in the world would the same industry that paid huge amounts of money to stop their GMO laced junk food to not be labelled but turn around and pressure the FDA for Federal labeling laws??
According to Michele Simon of AppetiteforProfit.com, using federal regulations-already being in playbooks of Big Agra and biotech- could be useful in stopping grassroots efforts aimed at state battles that may impose even more stricter laws including outright bans on GMOs. She writes the following:
"But missing from both these accounts is the ominous potential downside of federal GMO labeling: a sneaky legal concept known as preemption[...] Preemption simply means that a higher law trumps a lower law: so federal trumps state, state trumps local. But in practice, it's industry's way of ensuring uniformity and stopping grassroots efforts. How do I know this? From years of experience of seeing it happen in various public health issues"
If the biggest players in the food industry are willing to cave on GMO labeling, Whole Foods knows damn well that it has to keep moving towards mandatory labeling. Why? though we would like to think it is because of consumer pressure, it is most likely because of Whole Foods image around healthy and "organic" foods
Thus they would the first grocery store to require labeling of all GMO ingredients and would preserve Whole Foods reputation among shoppers who are trying to avoid this stuff at all costs and realize that customer trust and integrity are important in a changing market
While labeling is a positive step, we must be careful of half assed measures implemented by the representatives in Washington who do not represent the best interests of the American people as has been well documented
But keeping enough pressure on these industries will roll back this insane untested food created in a lab and maybe one day make it possible for average people to eat real quality food
