Tropicana Pure Premium products and 4 other PepsiCo brands will soon bear the Non-GMO Project butterfly seal. The emblem will start appearing early next year.
PepsiCo has been one of the biggest opponents of state efforts to require labels on such foods, though now it seems the company is making extra effort to grapple the consumer market seeking organic and non-GMO foods.
The number of countries saying NO to GMOs is growing as more nations express their desire to protect their territories from biotech’s greedy hands. In a meeting held in Bern, Switzerland on December 18th, 2015, the Swiss Federal Council decided to extend the country’s moratorium on the cultivation of GM seed until at least 2021. [1]
Crystal Sugar Company CEO, David Berg, isn’t having huge success in the sugar business lately. Though sugar prices remain high, his company and others face ‘serious roadblocks’ due to the anti-GMO movement (aka demand for Non-GM) and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who wants to dispose of government assistance to sugar.
No one can argue that 2015 was a rough year for Chipotle. Five outbreaks of foodborne illness have struck the Mexican restaurant franchise since October, giving a bad reputation to a food chain that is going the route of healthy and GMO-free (at least on the surface).
Here’s a timeline of Chipotle’s nightmare:
Big Food companies that want to switch to non-GM soy and corn products without worrying about contamination through normal supply chains can now count on a North Dakota grain plant. Captain Drake LLC, has acquired a million-bushel terminal with dedicated rail cars that will be used exclusively for the holding and transport of GMO-Free grains to meet the growing d
A Beijing, China-based agritech company, Origin Agritech was planning on launching China’s first seed company on its home turf, but with the country feeling uneasy about biotech seed sales, and the recent news concerning Monsanto’s RoundUp containing a likely-carcinogen, Origin will test its seed technology in the US instead. [1]
An appeal by two environmental groups to Canadian Federal Courts to halt the production of genetically modified (GM) salmon has taken a beating. Hundreds of thousands of consumers will now have to figure out if their stores are selling the GM fish. [1]
The Ecology Action Centre of Halifax and the Living Oceans Society in B.C. filed the appeal against AquaBounty and the federal ministers of health and environment.
The court dismissed both the allegations that the environmental groups made, including:
On Monday December 21, students from Livingston High School joined Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, an American scientist with a PhD in systems biology from MIT, to debate the ‘safety’ of GMO crops. Monsanto was invited to come and prove that there are indeed GMO safety assessment standards, and was even offered a $10 million enticement to send representatives to argue its side. But the company was entirely absent from the event. [1]
The Yurok Tribe, the largest Native American tribe in California, will join other peoples such as those from Russia, Italy, and Germany in saying NO to genetically modified organisms. The tribe has just announced that it is implementing a ban on all GM crops and GM animals. [1]
A committee meant to review the Yurok Tribe Genetically Engineered Organism (GEO) Ordinance, which was first allowed public comment, has now been enacted this December, 2015.
Agricultural leaders aren’t giving up on the fight to halt foods from being labeled if they contain genetically modified ingredients. Even though the bill that would have ruined GMO labeling initiatives across the country was stopped dead in its tracks in Congress, leaders say the issue of GMO labeling will be ‘top priority’ when they get back to work in January.
