In a particular bind in this fight are the many mainstream food conglomerates that now own organic brands, which by definition don’t include GMOs: Kellogg, owner of GMO poster brand Kashi; General Mills, owner of the Cascadian Farm, Muir Glen, Larabar and Food Should Taste Good brands; Coca-Cola, owner of Odwalla and Honest Tea; PepsiCo; and Dean Foods, owner of Horizon Organics.
Each of those companies has contributed substantially to funding an effort to opposed Proposition 37 on California’s November 6 ballot. They say they want a national-level measure on GMOs, anyway, and complain that the Golden State proposition would saddle farmers and the industry by dramatically raising costs — as well as unfounded concerns about the safety of GMO products. Europe has had such regulations for 15 years.
The predictable result of the political fight has been stress within the organic brands themselves and distress on the part of many of their consumers, who have peppered social-media sites with complaints to their organic “friends” about the funding behavior of their parent companies.
View the original article here: Organic Brands Caught In Fight Over California’s Prop 37 GMO Debate – brandchannel.com
