GREENWASHING OUR WAY OUT OF THE GMO CONTROVERSY
When the USDA deregulated the growing of Roundup Ready (GMO) alfalfa last month, Ronnie Cummins with the Organic Consumers Association wrote a dispatch revealing collusion between three big time organic food companies and the forces (i.e. Monsanto) that shaped the USDA's decision. Whole Foods, Stonyfield Farms and Organic Valley argue that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack only allowed for two options: allowing organic and GMO farmers to co-exist by regulating how GMO crops are grown or allowing total deregulation of GMO crops. They say that organic farmers need legal protection from cross-contamination of GE crops as well as compensation if their crops are contaminated. Cummins believes that by supporting "co-existence," Whole Foods, Stonyfield and Organic Valley are selling out the rest of the organic food movement, still bent on stopping the profileration of GMO food. On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Ronnie Cummins about why he believes that Whole Foods' claims that it is still part of the fight to hold back the expansion of GMO crops is greenwashing.
Ronnie Cummins is the national director of Organic Consumers Association and co-author of Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide for Consumers.
Read Whole Food's response to Organic Consumers Association claims:
http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2011/01/urgent-action-needed-to-support-organics-and-non-ge-crops/