Whole Foods Conditionally Supports Genetically Engineered Alfalfa

By Samantha Bonar Fri., Jan. 28 2011 at 1:41 PM

Some Roundup with your mayo?

Whole Foods Market conditionally threw its support behind the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent decision to deregulate genetically engineered Roundup Ready Alfalfa. In an email sent to customers last week, Whole Foods professed their support for organics and "seed purity" but said they are in favor of the "conditional deregulation" of the GE alfalfa. That is, if Monsanto, the creator of the GE crop, agrees to pay compensation to farmers "for any losses related to the contamination of [their] crop[s]."

Stonyfield Farm and Organic Valley have joined with Whole Foods in saying they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE alfalfa, as long as there are restrictions in place to support "coexistence" with organic crops.

The Organic Consumers Association released a statement saying that the move to deregulate the alfalfa will contaminate non-genetically engineered and organic crops across the United States, including the alfalfa fed to organic animals (alfalfa is a mainstay food for organic dairy and beef cows and commercial honeybees), poison farm workers and produce Roundup-resistant super-weeds that require the use of more toxic herbicides, as well as "destroy the essential soil food web."

Anti-GE crops activists have been fighting Monsanto on this issue for 12 years. They fear that the USDA's decision regarding Roundup Ready alfalfa sets a dangerous precedent. Maybe so -- if you have a problem with poison becoming part of the DNA of your veggies and killer weeds destroying the entire planet's ecosystem.

And you were worried about parabens.

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genetically engineered crops, Mosanto, Roundup Ready alfalfa, Samantha Bonar, USDA, Whole Foods

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Amy Pearson

If you want to increase your knowledge onGMOs and genetically engineered foods your interests most likely also includehow to avoid the purchasing and consuming of these products.

Kimwright

I will not continue to patronize Whole Foods if it is true they support, or will carry products that allow GE alfalfa. I live in WI where we grow more acres of organic alfalfa than any other state. Organic alfalfa sells for 18 to 20% higher prices than conventional alfalfa. It is a major export crop as well as critical food source for our growing organic dairy industry. Organic dairy requires 100% organic feed. Only 7% of US alfalfa is grown with herbicides, Roundup Ready Alfalfa is not needed. It will cause great harm by infecting and ruining organic and concentional alfalfa seed and crops for no good reason. I will do more research on Whole Foods and if it's true they support GE alfalfa, I won't shop there and will encourage all I know to stop going there too.

Andrea

whole foods already carries products made with GE ingredients including corn and soy

Chuckkkkkkles

Quote from article:

"Whole Foods Market conditionally threw its support behind the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent decision to deregulate genetically engineered Roundup Ready Alfalfa. In an email sent to customers last week, Whole Foods professed their support for organics and "seed purity" but said they are in favor of the "conditional deregulation" of the GE alfalfa. That is, if Monsanto, the creator of the GE crop, agrees to pay compensation to farmers "for any losses related to the contamination of [their] crop[s].""

Nowhere in this article does it say that Whole Foods, Stony Field, or Organic Valley were agitating or supporting outright, the use of GMO alfalfa. I'm not sure where any commenter is getting this idea

roborg

The idea that Whole Foods was supporting GE crops was so odd that I bothered to go and read the Whole Foods press release. I recommend that you do that as well. I'm not sure what Ms. Bonar's agenda is.

DrK

Thank you roborg for not blindly following a "news" story. Few people take the time to investigate the truth anymore. Here is the link to Whole Foods Press Release:

http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.c...

Normal45

Either way, there is no good news to this. The USDA is caving in to corporate lobbyists and their agendas and they always have about food. There is just no way to "prove" that chemicals or genetically engineered foods cause cancer. Until then, our food will continue to be contaminated.

CuriousG

The OCA story on this is distorting the truth. None of the three companies mentioned supports GMO seed and have been fighting the deregulation of GE Alfalfa for years. When the USDA took the denial of use of GE Alfalfa off the table as an option, these companies started working for de-regulation with restrictions. They did not 'cave' in to Monsanto. Monsanto just had the money to twist the right arms at the USDA to get their way.