NPR has an interesting article about brands quietly dropping genetically modified ingredients. One would think this would be a huge selling point for brands and that they’d be shouting this information from the rooftops, but according to the story, they’re not:
General Mills’ original plain Cheerios are now GMO-free, but the only announcement was in a company blog post in January. And you won’t see any label on the box highlighting the change. Grape Nuts, another cereal aisle staple, made by Post, is also non-GMO. And Target has about 80 of its own brand items certified GMO-free.Megan Westgate runs the Non-GMO Project, which acts as an independent third-party verifier of GMO-free products, including Target’s. She says her organization knows about “a lot of exciting cool things that are happening that for whatever strategic reasons get kept pretty quiet.”
But just because they’re testing the water doesn’t mean most mainstream companies are ready to start publicizing their changes.
Nathan Hendricks, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University, says big food producers are trying to gauge what direction consumers are headed in. “Ultimately,” he says, “these big companies aren’t just friends with Monsanto or something. They want to make a profit, and they want to be able to do what’s going to make them money.” So they’d better have a product line in the works if consumer sentiment starts to shift more heavily toward GMO-free food.
VJB says
I am thinking that they are leaving the door open in case there is not a public outcry or no changing of the laws so that they can go back to their old ways. If they don’t market their product as GMO free it will be easier to go back to the old product which sounds like it is cheaper and less hassles. And by not announcing it consumers would not notice that they go to back to old practices. If they announce it, it will be a new standard that has to be maintained ( which is costly and filled with hassles) otherwise the public would notice.