Whole Foods, Stonyfield Farm and Organic Valley Boycott – Was I Wrong?

I jumped the gun regarding my anger at Whole Foods, Stoneyfield Farms and Organic Valley for appearing to cave in to the USDA and Monsanto, as reported by the Organic Consumers Association and others. Two well-written responses, both in defense of all three companies and their efforts to stop GE Alfalfa have been published. Please be sure to read these responses from:

Stonyfield Farm

The Non-GMO Project  

As a former government worker, non-profit employee and lobbyist, I can see how the GMO opponents found themselves without the option of banning GMO and went for the next best thing. That said, I have also been part of negotiations where the non-profit side/underdogs have caved too quickly. We will never really know what happened in the negotiations, and I am willing to give Whole Foods, Stonyfield Farm and Organic Valley the benefit of the doubt. The responses to the Organic Consumers Union’s article are resoundingly anti-GMO and I am choosing to believe them unless additional information becomes available.

Comments

[Mama Hope]

I can't guess at who is telling the whole truth/half truth or whatnot but I am not comfortable with the role these 'bigwig' food chains took in the controversy. I really do think there had to be other options then saying OK, we can at least push to pay those poor organic farmers off when their crops are contaminated---so what!? I don't think we can bend the slightest to Monsanto's will or we will quickly be overrun with the crap they 'offer' us.

[Laura Combs]

I agree with you, but the way the game works is that the mega players do the negotiating. With someone like Vilsack, a GMO darling as USDA Secretary, I can see him taking the Rejection alternative off the table. I would expect that from the Bush administration, not the Obama administration, but Obama has been worse than Bush in some ways, so I am not surprised. He let Vilsack fire the USDA organic guy last month, and now PEER is adovcating for him. What really hacks me is that Michelle is the organic garden proponent. What the heck?

[Maria Droujkova]

These companies are stupid to conduct their talks non-transparently. They should live-stream the whole process and allow viewers to communicate with one another, as well as recording it. The distrust from potential supporters ON ALL SIDES that non-transparency breeds is incredible. I care less about particulars of the situation than I do about the fact they negotiate secretly.