by Jeff Jeff Harmening, Executive VP/COO, General Mills
I have been eagerly awaiting a resolution of the GMO labeling debate in Washington and am disappointed that a national solution has still not been reached.
As the discussions continue in Washington, one thing is very clear: Vermont state law requires us to start labeling certain grocery store food packages that contain GMO ingredients or face significant fines.
We can't label our products for only one state without significantly driving up costs for our consumers and we simply will not do that.
The result: consumers all over the U.S. will soon begin seeing words legislated by the state of Vermont on the labels of many of their favorite General Mills products.
With the Vermont labeling legislation upon us, and with the distinct possibility that other states will enact different labeling requirements, what we need is simple: We need a national solution.
So why has it been so hard to reach a consensus on this topic?
All sides of this debate, 20 years of research, and every major health and safety agency in the world agree that GMOs are not a health or safety concern.
At the same time, we know that some consumers are interested in knowing which products contain GMO ingredients.
So while the discussions continue in Washington to find a national solution, we have added a simple search tool on our website, found at Ask.GeneralMills.com, to provide GMO ingredient information for hundreds of our U.S. products, along with reference information.
And for consumers who prefer products without GMO ingredients, we have terrific organic and non-GMO brands like Annie’s, Cascadian Farm, Muir Glen and LÄRABAR.
General Mills is now the 3rd largest producer of natural and organic foods in the country and we are proud to be a major contributor to increasing the amount of organic acreage being planted.
We will continue advocating for a national solution to GMO communications to consumers, but on behalf of all the passionate food makers here at General Mills, we look forward to moving beyond this divisive topic and getting back to creating great food that people love.
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Jeff Harmening Jeff Harmening is an executive vice president and chief operating officer, for U.S. Retail at General Mills, based in Minneapolis. He has corporate oversight of the Baking, Cereal, Meals, Snacks and Yogurt divisions. He joined General Mills in 1994.
