January, 08 2016, 10:15am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Organic Consumers Association: Katherine Paul, 207-653-3090, katherine@organicconsumers.org
OCA Statement on Campbell's Plan to Label Foods Containing Genetically Engineered Ingredients
FINLAND, Minn
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) today issued the following statement following the announcement by Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) will label products that contain genetically engineered ingredients:
"Today's announcement by Campbell's marks a significant win on the GMO labeling front for consumers," said OCA International Director, Ronnie Cummins. Whether this major food company's decision was forced by Vermont's GMO labeling law, set to take effect July 1, or whether it is a result of direct pressure from consumers and consumer boycotts, the decision proves that when consumers consistently, and persistently, demand transparency, food corporations will eventually comply, rather than risk their brand images or retail sales.
"The decision by Campbell's sends a clear message to Monsanto and the Grocery Manufacturers Association which have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat GMO labeling laws. And unless Campbell's announces price hikes resulting from these new labels, this move proves that industry threats that labels will makes products more expensive have been nothing more than empty fear mongering.
"Ultimately we would like to see Campbell's source only organic ingredients, from suppliers that use organic, regenerative farming practices. And we disagree with the company's claims that GMOs are safe, especially given that about 85 percent of GMO crops are grown with Monsanto's Roundup, which contains glyphosate, a probable carcinogen, according to the World Health Organization. But we congratulate the company for being the first major brand to provide transparency around GMO ingredients."
Following the loss of Proposition 37, a 2012 ballot initiative in California that would have required GMO foods in that state to be labeled, the OCA called for a boycott of the organic brands owned by Campbell's, including the company's Plum Organics line. Campbell's donated $589,000 to defeat Prop 37, and another $385,000 to defeat a similar initiative in Washington State, in 2013.
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots 501(c)3 nonprofit public interest organization, and the only organization in the U.S. focused exclusively on promoting the views and interests of the nation's estimated 50 million consumers of organically and socially responsibly produced food and other products. OCA educates and advocates on behalf of organic consumers, engages consumers in marketplace pressure campaigns, and works to advance sound food and farming policy through grassroots lobbying. We address crucial issues around food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children's health, corporate accountability, Fair Trade, environmental sustainability, including pesticide use, and other food- and agriculture-related topics.
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During the Cold War, when nuclear weapons policy was produced, speed was seen as essential to deterrence, according to Jon Wolfsthal, the director of global risk at the Federation of American Scientists, who wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post last year that makes a similar argument to Markey and Lieu.
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