Natural foods retailers mobilize against GMOs

At the Natural Grocery Co. in Berkeley, Calif., green shelf tags highlight Non-GMO Project Verified products, while other items at risk of containing genetically modified organisms are flagged with a damning red sticker.

At Nature’s Pantry in Independence, Mo., prominent displays showcase books and DVDs detailing the perils of genetic engineering.

At Mile High Organics in Denver, two part-time staffers scrutinize products to assure they fulfill the company’s promise of being “Colorado’s only completely non-GMO retailer.”

“Consumers have about six seconds to make product decisions in grocery aisles with thousands of options,” says Michael Joseph, founder of Mile High Organics. “I believe retailers have an obligation to help them address the issue of GMOs.”

Seventeen years after genetically modified food hit the shelves, retailers from coast to coast are doing just that, joining an unprecedented—and many say long overdue—groundswell to slow the march of GM crops across America’s farmlands and tables. 

Today, GM crops (particularly corn, soy, canola and cotton) make up half of all land harvested in the United States; GMOs are present in roughly 80 percent of processed foods. Just six years after the approval of GM sugar beets, genetically modified sugar makes up half of the nation’s sugar supply, according to biotech giant Monsanto. And with the pending approval of genetically engineered salmon, meat is poised to be the next so-called “Frankenfood.”

This swift proliferation, along with recent studies showing harmful environmental impacts of GMOs, has galvanized purveyors and consumers of natural products, spawning everything from theatrical protests to sophisticated lobbying efforts. Many fear we could someday lose our ability to choose genetically unadulterated products—if we haven’t already. (Retailers: 11 actions you can take to fight GMOs.)

“We have failed as an industry to build a powerful coalition around this issue, and now we are in real jeopardy,” says Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farm, an organic dairy product manufacturer in Londonderry, N.H. Hirshberg estimates he spends 90 percent of his time speaking to stakeholders about GMOs. “Now is the time to act,” he says.

But just what that action should look like—and the role natural products retailers should play—is a matter of great, sometimes ferocious, debate.