WASHINGTON—A coalition of food safety advocates sent a petition to 10 of the top national retail grocery chains ad food processors asking them to reject the use of Monsanto’s genetically engineered sweet corn that is slated to hit the commerce next year.
The coalition, including the Center for Environmental Health, Center for Food Safety, CREDO Action, Food Democracy Now!, collected more than 264,000 petition signatures from consumers who refuse to purchase the corn and are asking retailers and food processors to reject it. The petition was sent to national retail grocery stores, including Wal-Mart, Kroger and Safeway, and top canned and frozen corn processors including Bird’s Eye and Del Monte
General Mills and Trader Joe’s have already indicated that they will not be using the Monsanto GE sweet corn in their products, according to replies the companies sent to a request from the Center for Environmental Health.
In August, Monsanto announced that its Roundup Ready GE sweet corn—as opposed to corn that has been used primarily in animal feed and highly processed foods since 1994—would be available for the fall planting season. Although the sweet corn is the first GE vegetable of this type to be commercialized by Monsanto, it received swift approval from the USDA since the agency does no independent testing of GE crops and the seed’s three distinct traits were previously approved, each separately, in 2005 and 2008. The three traits are corn borer resistance, rootworm resistance and tolerance for glyphosate.
Monsanto is planning to grow its GE sweet corn on 250,000 acres next year, which is roughly 40% of the sweet corn market. They believe the corn will be used primarily in frozen and canned corn products, but could also be sold as fresh corn on the cob through retailers.
Click here to read a sample of the cover letter sent to the food companies.
