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Seeds of discontent: Stomach-turning GMO debate heats up
An overview of the fight over genetically engineered food
Troy Hooper | Tue., March 26, 2013 @ 11:31 am
Image: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
BOULDER — Ever since genetically modified organisms entered the mainstream in 1996, Alfalfa’s has tried to keep them off of its shelves.
Seventeen years later, Whole Foods isn’t going quite that far but it now plans to require GMO labeling in every one of its stores by 2018.
Labeling already occurs at Alfalfa’s Market, founded in 1983 at the corner of Arapahoe and Broadway. The vast majority of the food it carries is organic, which by definition should be GMO-free. But bioengineered ingredients — particularly corn, soy and sugar beets — are so widespread that food makers often have no choice but to use them. In the rare event a product it sells might contain a GMO, Alfalfa’s labels it as such. The same goes for products verified by the Non-GMO Project.
Mark Retzloff, the store’s founder, is among the biggest proponents of Boulder Congressman Jared Polis’ push to require GMO labeling on a national scale. It’s a popular idea. Surveys nationally and in Colorado show that shoppers overwhelmingly favor GMO labeling. They just don’t want to pay for it.
“Ideally, if the manufacturers were to label the products that would make our life a lot simpler here,” said Retzloff, who co-founded his first natural foods store in 1969 before going on to co-found Horizon Organic Dairy and Aurora Organic Dairy and leading a successful turnaround of Rudi’s Organic Bakery.
Earlier this month, Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, declared the grocery chain was “putting a stake in the ground on GMO labeling to support the consumer’s right to know.”
It is the biggest grocer to do so. Robb added that Whole Foods will be stepping up its support of certified organic agriculture businesses and it will work to grow its stable of non-GMO suppliers.
The Austin, Texas-based grocer “is kind of a gatekeeper in the food industry, so if companies want to sell a product at Whole Foods, they’re going to have to label it,” Retzloff said. “In five years if Whole Foods keeps going the way it is, it’ll be significant. Companies are going to want to sell their products in Whole Foods. So they’re going to start labeling.”
