So far, General Mills has resisted making other Cheerios varieties GMO-free, contending on its website that it was the "unique and simple nature of original Cheerios" that allowed the company to keep it free of GMOs. GMO Inside is also targeting Chobani, the country's leading brand of Greek yogurt, which it says uses dairy products that may come from cows raised on genetically modified feed. This high market penetration has made cereal a rich target for those looking to effect widespread change in the use of genetically modified ingredients. The US cold breakfast cereal industry generates about $10.1bn annually and more than 91% of households buy cold cereal, according to market research firm Mintel. The Kellogg's-owned Kashi brand has been removing GMOs from its cereals since early 2012 today 11 of its 25 Kashi cold cereals are certified GMO-free by the Non-GMO Project, a nonprofit group that verifies such claims. In January, Post Foods also announced that it had removed GMOs from one of its signature cereals, Grape-Nuts. But "if they changed, they could have a big impact." "They're not the lone bad actors," O'Connell said. Also, the popularity of Honey Nut Cheerios – the country's best-selling cereal – means a small change in its ingredients could send an outsized message. In part, precisely because these foods have so few GMO ingredients, making a change much more feasible than for products more heavily dependent on genetically engineered ingredients, said campaign director Elizabeth O'Connell. So why is GMO Inside campaign targeting these products? The components that most concern GMO opponents are ingredients used in much smaller amounts: sugar, corn starch and vitamin E, which can be derived from soy. But the principal ingredient of both regular and Honey Nut Cheerios is oats, a plant that is not genetically modified. The crops most likely to be genetically modified include alfalfa, canola, corn, soy and sugar beets. There is also concern that changing a plant's genetic codes could make them unsafe for consumption in the long-term opponents say GMOs might increase the risk of allergies, digestive issues and organ damage. Their widespread use is causing a decline in crop diversity, leaving our food supply more vulnerable to disaster, she and others argue.įurthermore, strains engineered to withstand pesticides can lead to more liberal use of such chemicals, potentially causing environmental damage, they say. They are worrisome for several reasons, said McCann. Genetically modified foods are plants whose genetic code has been engineered to select for certain traits: yield, pesticide resistance, color. The company did not acknowledge the effect of any of the anti-GMO campaigns, but rather explained on a company blog that it made the change because "we think consumers may embrace it". In January, General Mills announced that it no longer uses GMOs in classic Cheerios. This effort is a follow-up to a previous GMO Inside campaign that targeted the original Cheerios, an initiative the group says generated 25,000 emails and 40,000 calls for action on the brand's Facebook page. The GMO Inside campaign also owns two shares of General Mills stock, which has allowed spokespeople to attend shareholders meetings and raise questions about the use of genetically engineered ingredients. "All of our followers are putting pressure on them." "We're not going to give up on Honey Nut Cheerios until we succeed," Nicole McCann, director of food campaigns for Green America, an environmental nonprofit that is part of the campaign, said.
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