The fear of ‘Frankenfoods’ remains so widespread, so deeply—if wrongly—embedded in the popular ‘natural’ foods movement that Chipotle stands to commercialize hysteria and make a profit on its GMO ban.
But scientists say Chipotle’s exclusion of all GMO ingredients as part of its “Food with Integrity” philosophy is misinformed and exploitative of consumers.
“They’re positioning themselves as the good guys, but they’re actually exploiting people’s lack of sophistication about these issues and perpetuating pseudoscience,” says Jon Entine, founder of the Genetic Literacy Project and senior fellow at the University California-Davis’s World Food Center.
Entine references the most comprehensive review of GMOs and food—a 2014 study compiling nearly 30 years of health data on more than 100 billion food-producing animals, both before and after the introduction of genetically engineered feed in 1996—as scientific proof that genetically modified foods are safe for human consumption.
In Chipotle’s case, the notion that its food will be GMO-free is itself misleading. Indeed, buried in the fine print of Chipotle’s “Food with Integrity” philosophy is a mealy mouthed admission that “the meat and dairy served at Chipotle are likely to come from animals given at least some GMO feed.”
Nowhere do they mention that 90 percent of cheese in the U.S. is made with the genetically engineered enzyme, rennet, which acts as a coagulant. (Chipotle did not respond to inquiries from the Daily Beast about whether their cheese is now rennet-free.)
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: We’re Paranoid About GMO Foods Because of Pseudo-Science
