How The Co-op's Suppliers Stack Up

The Co-op has begun a pro-cess of talking to all of our sup-pliers to clarify their position on genetically modified foods, asking how they plan to deal with the question of genetically modified ingredients and what they are doing on labeling so our members will be able to make informed choices.

At the end of March, our purchasers handed out about a hundred GMO questionnaires to manufacturers at a massive natural foods show in Anaheim, California. The questionnaire asked questions, including: their position on the use of foods that contain GMO’s in their products; whether or not they do genetic testing randomly, for every batch, not at all, require testing by suppliers, issues around pollen drift in organics, and more.

As of the middle of April, we had received 18 responses. That covers a lot more territory than it might appear at first because some of the respondents are large “food groups” like Hain which supplies many products to the Co-op, under multiple labels. Member volunteers will be following up on companies that we haven’t heard from.

The Good News:
The good news is that none of the companies responding to the survey so far said they favored the use of GMO’s.

The Bad News:
The bad news is that at this early stage there is very little con-sistency or clarity in the natural foods business about what to do about GMO’s or how to clearly inform consumers. Some companies are using the term “non-GMO” to mean that their products are grown from non-GMO seed, but have not been DNA tested for contamination.

Some companies are using “no-GMO” to mean they have tested for GMO’s either on a random or yearly basis or have tested each batch. Some companies are using the phrase “GMO-free.” None of these terms has any legal definition, or even an agreed-upon meaning within the industry. There is no industry-wide certifying agency. Of course, mandatory labeling of products that DO contain GMO’s would go a long way to resolving the confusion; so please be sure to let your Congresspeople know that you support mandatory labeling. In the meantime, the consumer is going to have to do a little extra work to keep informed.

More Good News:
Two of the companies we have heard from do have a care-fully crafted approach to this complex problem, and both of these companies furnish the Co-op with a lot of products. Both Hain and Spectrum Naturals pledge to produce their products with ingredients free from GMOs. Both distinguish between crops that could be tainted with GMOs (the most prominent examples being corn, canola, potatoes, tomatoes, and soybeans) and those crops that at this point are not available in a GMO form.

They recognize that as the GMO technology spreads, the list of crops that may contain GMOs will be continually expanding. Both companies require use of non-GMO seed and will use DNA testing of each lot of ingredients that could possibly be tainted to insure that products that were grown from non-GMO seed have not been contaminated by pollen drift, or by residual contamination during processing, transportation or storage.

Spectrum, a major producer of oils, requires that seed be independently guaranteed to be non-GMO: producers must supply affidavits and retain samples of planting seed. When the crop is harvested and delivered to the processor, the crude oil (from the first crushing) is tested. It is only at this stage that DNA testing can detect GMOs. As the oil is pro-cessed further, the genetic markers that show the presence of GMOs are removed. Spectrum will cer-tify their products as non-GMO.

Hain’s policy for highly pro-cessed ingredients that cannot be tested due to absence of DNA (oils, vitamins and processing aids) is to require affidavits from their suppliers. Hain is currently beginning to label all their natural and organic products with infor-mation about the non-GMO status of that product.

Both Mori-Nu and White Wave tofu are using testing by Genetic ID Labs to insure their products are free of GMOs; and many other companies we heard from, including Annie’s Naturals, Kettle Chips, Ethnic Gourmet, Health is Wealth, and Mexi-Snax, are requiring some testing by their suppliers. The most disap-pointing response we received was from Power Bar, which “urges the FDA to exercise greater authority over GMO ingredients and foods,” and “supports the continued study of the environmental impact of GMO technology and appropriate regulation so that the integrity of our environment is protected.” They state that, “At the present time, it is nearly impossible for companies like Power Bar to obtain consistent supplies of non-GMO ingre-dients in the U.S.”

We’ll Do Some Work to Help You Become an Informed Consumer:
During this transitional time, the Co-op will maintain a book that has all the information we can get on our products. The book will be kept at the information desk at both locations and we urge concerned consumers to check there for the policies of companies whose products you regularly purchase.

This information will have email addresses and phone numbers, and we encourage you to let the companies know that you appreciate their efforts (if they are doing a good job) or would like them to develop a clear program (if they are lagging behind). This book should be available by the end of May and will be updated as we get new information.amin