By Jennifer Alsever
msnbc.com contributor
updated 5:45 p.m. ET, Mon., June 21, 2010To GMO or not to GMO?
No, it’s not a social networking site or a new dance. It stands for “genetically modified organisms” and if you’re like most Americans, you probably don't know what it means or that many of the foods you eat contain GMOs.
Food marketers are trying to change that. By the fall, as many as 200 products — including Nature’s Path, Lundberg Family Farms and Earth Balance — will hit store shelves carrying a new “Non-GMO Project” food label, certifying that an independent lab has tested and confirmed the product contains no bioengineered ingredients.
Whole Foods will roll out an in-store educational campaign backed by Web site articles and newsletters — touting non-GMO foods.
“The public is becoming more aware,” says Libba Letton, spokeswoman for the 297-store chain. “Consumers are wanting to be educated about it and wanting to make informed choices.”
While labeling of genetically modified food is common overseas, especially in Europe, it is practically unheard of in the United States, where big agricultural producers long have argued that such products are no different than traditional crops.
“There is no inkling of anything that says it’s not safe,” says Sharon Bomer, the Biotechnology Industry Association’s executive vice president for food and agriculture.
GMOs first appeared in 1995, and today bioengineered seeds are used in 81 percent of corn crops, 91 percent of soybean crops and 95 percent of sugar beet crops. Genetically modified foods are used in most processed foods and as feedstock for most cattle and chickens.
Unlike traditional crops, genetically modified seeds have been engineered — either by inserting or deleting genes — generally to produce their own insecticide or resist weed-killing herbicides.
THIS IS GOOD NEWS! READ MORE .......... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37576031/ns/business-consumer_news/
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