Meet Manolo Reyes. You may not know his name, but he has considerable influence over the U.S. food supply. Mr. Reyes goes to work every day at a place that determines how one out of every $3 spent on groceries in the United States is spent. This might lead you to believe that Mr. Reyes works at the Food and Drug Administration or the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but no. Mr. Reyes is the vice president of produce and floral for Walmart.
As the country's largest grocery retailer, Walmart sells more than $100 billion worth of food a year, giving it unmatched power in shaping the food supply chain. Walmart has spent millions trying to convince us that they want to help make our food supply healthier. They tell us they are going organic and local and will start trying to help shoppers cut down on salt, sugar and fat with a "Great for You" labeling scheme. But, as is the case with people and corporations that don't always tell the truth, there's more information in what Walmart isn't saying.
A couple of weeks ago, Walmart released a statement that it will begin selling meat that doesn't contain the filler called "lean, finely textured beef trimmings," or "pink slime," but it did not specify whether it would stop selling beef with the filler altogether. Similarly, when asked by more than half a million shoppers to block Monsanto's latest genetically engineered sweet corn, Walmart has been hiding behind a meaningless evasive statement that it doesn't "specifically source" GE foods.
Walmart may not go out of its way to require growers to produce Monsanto's GE sweet corn, but unless it takes affirmative steps to prevent the corn from coming into its stores, it is likely to be purchased and sold alongside regular corn, unlabeled, to unsuspecting consumers. By responding as they do to consumer complaints about GE sweet corn, Walmart is intentionally leaving the mistaken impression that they will not be selling this untested and potentially dangerous product when in all likelihood, it could wind up in its stores' produce section this summer.
Since January, nearly 500,000 people have signed a petition asking Walmart to refuse to sell Monsanto's GE sweet corn, more than 150 events have taken place at Walmart stores across the country and 8,500 people have called Mr. Reyes, other top Walmart officials, store and regional managers, and Walmart's customer service line.
Public opinion polls show that a majority of consumers asked would not eat GE food if they had a choice and nearly all -- 95 percent -- are insistent that GE food must at least be labeled so they can make informed choices.
Genetically engineered foods have not been comprehensively tested for long-term impacts on human and environmental health safety, but a growing body of research is uncovering potential health and environmental risks associated with GE crops such as increased food allergies and other long-term health effects. Plus, superweeds and pests have become resistant to GE-affiliated herbicides and pesticides and require many more toxic chemicals to be applied to crops.
Monsanto announced this new sweet corn -- its first variety intended to be eaten on the ear -- in August. Because the seed combines three genetically engineered traits that were approved in 2005 and 2008 (corn-borer resistance, rootworm resistance and tolerance for Monsanto's top-selling herbicide Roundup), it flew through the approvals process even though a vegetable with these three traits have never been consumed directly by people.
Every day, more people are learning that most highly processed packaged foods such as snacks and sugary breakfast cereal contain GE ingredients (such as soy, corn or canola), and are starting to avoid these foods and choosing fresh fruits and vegetables instead. But Monsanto and other GE seed manufacturers are one step ahead of us. In order to keep their market share growing and a stranglehold on our food supply, they must invade a new section of the grocery store.
A reporter asked me recently, with the vast majority of the American food supply now genetically engineered, how does stopping this one variety help consumers? If Walmart refuses to stock Monsanto's GE sweet corn, it would send a strong signal that there is no market for this genetically engineered food and could actually stop the seed before it's even planted.
This campaign is one of many battles being waged in a much larger fight to restore control and choice to consumers. Food & Water Watch, our food safety and environmental allies, and concerned eaters in communities across the country are fighting to roll back the prevalence of genetically engineered material in our food supply.
We all deserve the opportunity to choose healthy, sustainable foods that we know where and how they were grown. If everyone who believes this picks up the phone and calls Mr. Reyes, we really, truly can stop this and all untested, unlabeled and potentially unsafe GE foods in their tracks. What are you waiting for?
Follow Wenonah Hauter on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@foodandwater
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No thanks people. You can tell me it's safe until you are blue in the face, but I absolutely refuse to eat this stuff and no amount short term animal feed studies will convince me otherwise. I do not want to be part of your science experiment.
Labels now.
Everyone remembers Prodigene right? They only had to pay $3 million for there lil "oopsie"
http://www.icis.com/Articles/2002/12/13/186734/prodigene-fined-for-crop-contamination.html
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/2002/Crop-Mixing-Probe-Looks-at-ProdiGene/id-28696ce2e1f10824fad6ed1f0e406822
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/1999/12/22/gmfood991222.html
For those of us who want to opt out, the only way to do so is labeling.
"he article above is factually incorrect in many places and is quite misleading."
-Please list out the factually incorrect elements of this article for us to make our own decision on your statement.
"Your comment about no studies in humans is misleading"
-No it isn't. There is no long-term human health studies done on corn that has been genetically modified to secrete bacterial proteins that kill certain insects. This is not just "Sweet corn" and the "substantial equivalence" nonsense is just that, nonsense.
And how are GMO foods safer than the standard crop?
"just buy products labeled GM free or organic"
-Yeah not good enough.
"The present voluntary labeling system means that people who care to opt out pay for their preferences. Seems fair to me."
-The current testing and labeling system is a sham and should not be trusted by the average consumer.
I say Pioneer, Monsanto, Syngenta, and the other 1000+ seed compies pull their GMO seed corn from the market this planting season and you can watch everyone starve to death. Maybe you could survive a little longer on your victory garden, but it would be pretty lonely all by yourself.
-What did I spin exactly? And how am I an "anti-GMO activist"? I want them labeled that is hardly anti-GMO. What other strawmen bs do you have for me. Let's see.
"So when there are 30+ years of independent and government studies/research demonstrating no adverse health effects of GMO's,"
-OK, please link to this research. I've seen all sorts of studies that say all sorts of things and I have linked to them. You are just waving your wand saying "there are studies and they say they are safe" so please, show us. I can guarantee you it's a short-term animal feed study.
"zero CREDIBLE studies to suggest they are unsafe for consumption,"
-So says you. Waving that wand again. And do you know how quotes work? Farmer Guy, how many times are you going to falsely quote me? I said "There are no long term human health studies proving the safety of eating this stuff." not "There are no long term studies that prove the safety". The sooner you figure out how quotes work and what they represent the better off you will be.
Your second paragraph is completely absurd and doesn't even qualify for a response.
This variety will mean far less potential for you to consume insecticides when eating. Id like to see anyone argue this point.
-Technically that is wrong. The corn produces just the bacterial protein, Bt delta endotoxin or Cry toxin, it doesn't actual produce bacteria.
"which allows farmers to virtually eliminate spraying toxic insecticides on the crops."
-That's not really all that true either. Cry toxins have been sprayed on plants for years because it is very specific to the pests it kills. If it doesn't work against a particular insect, you will still need to apply proper insecticide for said species.
But now instead of applying this cry toxin to the corn, the corn makes it's own and secretes it. On a strictly scientific level, that is pretty darn amazing. But in the real world, I have 0 desire to ingest this product. Especially this being Monsanto's first consumer food product and their patsy is "Food Safety Czar" at the FDA. And factor in this plant is also RoundUp ready meaning Glyphosate based herbicides can be directly applied to the plant without damage. So are we really limiting how many toxins get added to the food supply?
-Sounds like good marketing copy, doesn't sound realistic though. And according to the EPA "The potential for insects to develop resistance to the Bt protein poses a threat to the future use of Bt plant-incorporated protectants" and as such farmers have to institute several insect resistance management procedures such as "use of refuges to provide non-resistant insects to dilute the genes of any resistant insects in the pest population." I sure hope all these farmers pay attention to the directions.
In the end, just label everything that has GMOs in it and let the consumer decide if they want to eat and support this industry.
http://www.biosafety-info.net/article.php?aid=53
This guy gets it.
you people don't even like modern medications like antibiotics used on farm animals. What do you think the phrase "no antibiotics" means on organic products?
Boycott the backwards.
However we want labels. This gives you the right to consume all the above and me the right to avoid it.
Why would you have an issue with that? Because I won't be eating the GMO you can have double.
The other day, I heard a news report saying that corn growers are at fault for McDonald's food and, ultimately, obesity. McDonald's is at fault for creating their food, and consumers are at fault for eating it. And, I guarantee that you can get just as fat on organic cane sugar as you can on GE corn sugar.
Whole, fresh foods will always be better for you - no matter how they were grown.
For anyone interested, here is a link to the petition for Walmart to not stock this new Corn:
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/take-action/