As Advocates Gripe Over GMO-Labeling Law, One Company Leads


This article originally appeared in Triple Pundit, on

On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the country’s first labeling legislation for genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law this week.

Advocates were quick to express dissatisfaction with the bill when it hit the Senate floor. Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, called it a “sham” and a “legislative embarrassment.” Food Democracy Now called it a “corrupt bargain.” And multiple groups said it included backdoor dealings with organic food companies and Monsanto, the biotech giant behind the bulk of GMO crops planted in the U.S. as well as the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup).

The final bill represented something of a compromise, and many in the advocacy space were surprised it passed.

Gary Hirshberg, chairman of the Just Label It initiative and co-founder of Stonyfield, called the bill “inadequate.” And the initiative officially opposed it. (Its gripes, like many of its cohorts’, center around the bill’s loose definition of GMOs and its focus on QR codes rather than on-pack messaging.) But the news isn’t all bad, he told a group of journalists last week. “In the big picture, coming from 2011 when zero consumers had any knowledge” of GMOs, “this is progress.”

“But what this law really shines the light on,” Hirshberg continued, “is the critical importance of responsible companies now to do the right thing.”

And one leading consumer company is out to do just that. Ahead of the bill’s passage on Thursday, the nation’s leading yogurt maker announced a policy that blows past any federal or state requirements for GMO labeling.

Dannon’s big plans

New York-based Dannon plans to adopt an “all-natural approach” for its three flagship brands, Dannon, Oikos and Danimals, president and CEO Mariano Lozano said at a press briefing on Thursday.

Depending on your background, that sentence either made you smile or cringe. While studies continue to show that American shoppers seek out “natural” foods, advocates have longstanding beef with the ambiguity of the term. But for its part, Dannon set a clear internal definition for its “natural” approach — and its scope may surprise you.

“For us, ‘all natural’ means fewer ingredients that are closer to nature, clearer labels, that they are ingredients that we can pronounce, that they are not synthetic and are non-GMO,” Lozano explained.

Dannon’s first round of non-GMO yogurts represent around 10 percent of the company’s product portfolio. But that’s just the beginning of what industry experts say is a pioneering strategy. Here’s the gist:

  • Dannon plans to continue evolving its flagship brands to pivot toward non-GMO ingredients, with the ultimate goal of placing the Non-GMO Project’s Butterfly Seal on all Dannon, Oikos and Danimals products. These brands represent half of the milk the company uses and half of its on-shelf turnover.
  • Dannon will label all products containing GMO ingredients nationwide by the end of this year.
  • Starting in 2017, the company will go one step further to ensure the cows in its supply chain are fed non-GMO feed, a first for a leading non-organic yogurt maker.