Whole Foods Addresses GMO Accusations

Republican presidential hopefuls aren’t the only ones tossing around contentious banter lately. In our corner of the food-world, exchanges between Whole Foods Market (WFM) and Organic Consumers Association (OCA) have bordered on smarmy over the past year, and after this morning’s blog post by the organic foods giant Whole Foods, it looks like the ongoing tension could be surfacing again over OCA's accusations that WFM has gone soft on Monsanto. 

“We’ve been hearing some wild, off-base stories from around the country lately,” writes Whole Foods Market spokesperson Libba Letton, who goes on to dispel myths that include WFM being owned by Monsanto; WFM conducting secret deals with Monsanto to support deregulation of GE crops like alfalfa; and WFM recently deciding to put GMO products on their shelves.

“No!” “Again, no way!” And “Wrong again!” writes Letton.

The terse talk stemmed from an unusual December 2010 summit hosted by the USDA and its head, Tom Vilsak. The focus? Genetically engineered alfalfa, and whether or not the USDA would be granting widespread approval of the crop, or restrictions. The meeting included representatives from Whole Foods, Stonyfield Farm, Monsanto, Pioneer-Dupont, Center for Food Safety, and many others from both sides of the GMO debate. (Vilsak went on and deregulated genetically engineered alfalfa the month following that meeting.)

Soon after, OCA director Ronnie Cummins fired off a six page post entitled “The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What now?" in which he skewers the “organic elite,” Whole Foods, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, along with the Non-GMO Project, a third-party verifier of products made from ingredients that have not been genetically modified. In response, Non-GMO Project’s executive director Megan Westgate called the whole “circular firing squad” experience shocking. Instead of focusing on the overarching issue of genetically modified crops and changes to the way they're regulated, infighting and name-calling took over.

So what prompted this morning’s blog post by Whole Foods Market?

“It just blew up again in the last few weeks,” Letton tells TakePart. “The same article Ronnie wrote a year ago was getting reposted all over again on various blogs and Facebook pages, and it just went crazy. Typically, we respond individually to people who contact us, but we just couldn’t stay ahead of the wave on this one. It just exploded.”

Letton goes on to say that it would be helpful for customers to have a true understanding of what GMO products are, and how wide-spread they’ve become. She also openly admits that Whole Foods Market is not a GMO-free store.

“We source to avoid GMO ingredients,” she says. “But the easiest way to make sure there aren’t genetically engineered ingredients in the food is to look for certified organic products; products that have been verified by the Non-GMO Project and in our own 365 products.”