Topic: GMO

Amid Genetically Modified Foods Controversy, One Grocery Store Announces It Will Label GMOs

Genetically modified foods are everywhere, especially in the United States. The potentially negative effects that may come from consuming these altered foods have raised concerns among many people regarding whether or not manufacturers should have to label GMOs. In light of this standoff between certain large food production corporations and those who want GMOs to be labeled, one grocery store has announced its intention on labeling them regardless. More »

Rethink Your Labels: 7 Foods That Prove “All Natural” Is All B.S.

Cooking oil might seem like one of the more benign foods in supermarkets these days, but a class-action lawsuit doesn’t think so: A class-action suit filed in June in California is taking ConAgra to court for labeling Wesson oils’ as “100 percent natural.” The plaintiff says that he trusted the label as a customer, only to find out that they use genetically modified organisms in their products. But the takeaway here isn’t just to avoid canola oil; it’s that the label “natural” actually has zero regulation. More »

Can Food Technology Make Pepsi Healthy? We Think Not

If I asked you how many food technologists it takes to make a healthy meal, you’d think it was the start of a joke, right? Wrong. Today’s food manufacturers, like PepsiCo and Cargill, are paying thousands of food technologists to develop foods that are healthy and more natural. “What is great for technology is that that is really quite difficult,” said Cargill’s president Kerr Dow at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit last week. “Today all of our scientists are more interested in how do you take natural materials and make them easy to use in food products, which is just as difficult.” The mission is easy to mock (it’s not that hard to eat an apple and some nuts, after all), but the ultimate question is really whether it’s good or bad for consumers. While technology could make more nutritions foods available to more consumers, we’re skeptical that these companies are really pursuing the right answers to our food problems. More »

Genetically Modified Apples Will Never Go Brown

It’s sure the shits when your sliced apples go brown, making your lunch bag look like a compost pail. That’s why Canadian company Okanagan Specialty Fruits is genetically engineering apples that never brown, looking fresh long after they’ve been cut thanks to suppression of the enzyme that’s responsible for the normal browning of potatoes apples. Genetically modified tomatoes and grapes have been approved by the USDA, but the process takes a long time and consumers are still significantly skeptical of GMO products’ long-term health effects and environmental impact. More »