Non-GMO Food Labeling: Is it truth or deception?

Recently I responded to a tweet from @BioChicaGMO who posed the question:

To which I responded:

As a result, @BioChicaGMO reached out to me and asked me to coauthor a blog for the Genetic Literacy Project. We took differing approaches toward the issue of labeling on Non-GMO foods. Last week the blog was posted:

The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit organization that provides “North America’s only third party verification and labeling for non-GMO (genetically modified organism) food and products.

You may have seen its seal on various products in supermarkets, particularly at Whole Foods.The organization works with three companies or technical administrators including SCS Global Services to evaluate if products comply with its standards. Most recently, it has expanded its labeling services to include restaurants and delis.

The Non-GMO Project claims to verify more than 20,000 products. “We currently have more than 2,200 participating brands, and are receiving an average of 70-80 new verification inquiries every week,” says Megan Westgate, Executive Director of the Non-GMO Project, was recently quoted as saying. The organization claims sales of its verified products tops $7 billion annually.

For those concerned about consuming GMOs, this voluntary label, together with products that exist under the USDA’s organic label, provides many options. For those who oppose mandatory labeling of GMOs, the label provides an example of how voluntary labeling can work without imposing costs on others.

However, a seemingly grey area exists when a product is labeled as non-GMO, yet a GMO counterpart does not exist. For example, should an avocado be labeled as non-GMO if GMO avocados don’t exist? What about salt? Crushed tomatoes? Arecent article highlighted that some brands of popcorn are advertised as not containing genetically modified corn when there is no genetically modified corn of the popcorn variety on the market. Some people might argue that such labeling practices are misleading and dishonest; others don’t have a problem with it. This article provides opinions from both perspectives.

Labeling as GMO-free is disingenuous – Jennie Schmidt

It seems to me to be disingenuous to label foods as “non-GMO” when the counterpart GMO food doesn’t exist. The “Fair Packaging and Labeling Act of 1966” directs the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission to regulate labeling of foods and consumer commodities to “…to prevent unfair or deceptive packaging and labeling of many household consumer commodities.” I consider “non-GMO” labeling to be deceptive when the equivalent GMO product doesn’t exist in the marketplace. It’s akin to the claim that peanut butter is cholesterol free. Since cholesterol is produced in the liver and peanuts don’t have livers, peanut butter has always been cholesterol free.  To advertise it as cholesterol free is deceptive because it wasn’t there to begin with. Read the rest of the article here.

Food Giveaway! Guess the Pounds of Tomatoes in Our 2014 Harvest!

I'm doing my first give away! The person that guesses  the number of POUNDS of tomatoes we harvest this year (or comes the closest) will win a gift pack of Furmano Foods canned tomato products! 

We have 150 acres of "processing" tomatoes this year. That means they are field grown Roma tomatoes that we grow for  Furmano Foods in Pennsylvania. We have been growing tomatoes for Furmano for about 10 years. Its nice to grow for a company whose products are high quality, tasty, and that we enjoy eating!

One of our 2014 tomato fields.

These are cannery tomatoes that go for grocery items like diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, whole peeled tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, etc... Canned tomatoes are so versatile in so many recipes, I can't imagine my pantry without them!

Here's what the label looks like before they head to the cannery!

Tomatoes are an excellent source of lycopene and provide a good source of vitamins C & A. While they are delicious picked fresh, in season from the field, canned tomatoes are very versatile in many recipes, and are an easy, economical, and nutritious choice. 

They are machine harvested and loaded onto these trailers then hauled to the cannery and within 24 hours are processed into yummy tomato products!

So what do you need to do to win this prize? Guess the number of pounds that we will harvest from 150 acres of tomatoes this year. I will give you ONE clue, we are expecting an "above average" crop this year. I won't answer questions like "How many tons do you typically harvest?" but feel free to do some research on that. You can see, we have filled one tractor trailer load above. There are days when we fill 20 tractor trailers. The cannery tells us how many loads they need per day based on who else in the region is also harvesting. 

Rules:

1. The guess must be posted here in the comments section of the blog.

2. Family & employees are excluded from the contest (sorry Mom & Ernie).

3. I will only ship to a US address.

4. If you are the winner and you are outside of the USA, I will ship it to a friend or family of your choice in the USA or will donate it on your behalf to our local food pantry.

5. Harvest usually takes about 3 weeks, depending on Mother Nature and how well the equipment runs. Sorry I can't give you an "award" date but let's say by early September I should have all the harvest data and can determine a winner around that time. I will update the timeframe on facebook and twitter so you know when we are approaching the end of harvest. 

6. I will close the comment section when the last tractor trailer load of tomatoes leaves the farm. No entries will be accepted after than.

7. That's more rules than I had expected to come up with....

Now... Post your guess in the comments section here on the blog! The person closest to the number of pounds that we harvest wins! Happy guessing!