Whole foods puts up such a good organic front. The truth always spurts out the edges though…If Whole Foods Market no longer opposes GMOs, that makes them pro GMO. WFM is justifying their cave by asking for “compensation” for organic farmers whose lives, er, crops are ruined by GMO contamination. If this pisses you off, too, please spread it around. Let’s use the viral aspect of the Internet to be sure that this sort of thing doesn’t get swept under the rug in a week or two.

Here’s the original piece I read on this:

After 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 asking 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.

Main Source: CounterPunch, January 28, 2010

Genetic modification of wheat, what a boon that would be to Monsanto. Fortunately from reading
this article it appears that “a group of organizations from the US, Canada and Australia” (what groups it does not say…) have made a statement against wheat industry plans to commercialize genetically modified (GM) wheat.

They state that the introduction of GM wheat would put the seed supply in the hands of a small number of powerful companies and that cross-contamination from GM wheat could threaten the survival of varieties bred for local conditions.

Geniuses, they are.

More from the article:

“The statement echoes – but goes further than – the standpoint of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) which refused to sign the industry’s collaborative statement last month on the grounds that there is too much consumer resistance to GM wheat to make its introduction feasible at present. CWB, which sells wheat and barley in Western Canada, was also strongly opposed to the introduction of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready wheat in 2004.

Unlike the signatories to the anti-GM statement, however, CWB is working to gain greater consumer acceptance of GM wheat.”

This is why blogging and talking about these issues is so vitally important. We are indeed so
caught-up in daily life that these issues are gaining public acceptance because the masses
are only hearing one side of the story, and not learning about the hazards of messing with
seeds.