Tell General Mills: No GMOs for breakfast!
Tell General Mills: No GMOs for breakfast!
General Mills portrays itself as a purveyor of wholesome foods for the whole family. The company boasts that it is nourishing lives – making lives healthier, easier, and richer.
But General Mills has a dirty little secret. Its foods (including products from iconic brands such as Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, and Hamburger Helper) are chock full of corn, soy, and sugars -- ingredients that are almost always genetically modified in the United States. That includes Cheerios, America’s most-consumed cereal, and one that parents often feed to their children as a snack throughout the day. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have never been proven safe for consumption, and a growing body of studies is raising concerns around the health effects of eating them. GMOs are also increasing the use of herbicides and causing harm to farmers in the US and abroad. They are not making life healthier, easier, or richer. Nonetheless, General Mills keeps using ingredients known to have GMOs in its foods.
Adding insult to injury, the Cheerios that General Mills sells in Europe do not have GMO ingredients. That tells us two important things. First, General Mills can make Cheerios without GMOs. And second, General Mills doesn't care about the health of American families.
Knowing the growing public concern that exists around GMOs, General Mills is also doing all it can to prevent its customers from finding out that GMOs are in their foods. The company spent more than $1.1 million to oppose Proposition 37 in California, which would have required the labeling of GMO foods in that state. The “No on 37” coalition flooded the airwaves with misleading information to defeat Californians’ right to know what’s in their food.
Join Green America and the GMO Inside coalition in telling General Mills that it needs to shift towards non-GMO foods and support the public’s right to know when there are GMOs in its foods.
Letter to General Mills
Dear Kendall S. Powell, Chairman and CEO of General Mills
As a consumer who cares about the health and environmental impacts of foods, I’m concerned about the prevalence of genetically modified organisms (GMOS) in General Mills’ products. General Mills’ major brands contain corn, soy, and sugars – all ingredients that come from crops in the U.S. that are genetically engineered. Consumers are increasingly looking for foods that are non-GMO verified or organic certified to ensure that they are not eating GMOs, and your best sellers lack any such assurances.
As a company that purports to be nourishing lives, I don’t understand why you would include ingredients in the foods you sell that may be harmful to human health. As a company that purports to be responsible, I don’t understand why you include GMOs that are causing harms to the environment and farmers.
I also do not understand why your company actively opposes the right of consumers to know if GMOs are in their foods.
I urge General Mills to take a proactive stand and announce a phase out of all GMOs in your foods in 2013. I also urge General Mills to end its opposition to the labeling of GMOs in foods and to clearly label any General Mills’ products that contain GMOs with information regarding their genetically modified ingredients. The public has a right to know what foods have GMOs in them.
General Mills has the opportunity to be a leader amongst major food companies by being the first to end your use of GMOs and let the public know you have done so. Please take this important step for human and environmental health. And please make this decision now, so farmers can plant non-GMO crops this spring to meet your increased demand for non-GMO ingredients.
Thank you for your consideration.