thank you so much, CuriousG, for these articles!

The first one discredits Cummins to a point, then also explained why he issued such inflammatory remarks. The second article states that it was Vilsack, Secretary of Ag, who caved to Big Ag pressure by deregulating GE alfalfa completely--I think Vilsack should be sacked, by the way! The least he could have done was to provide compensation for organic farmers whose fields are contaminated by GE genetic drift!

I, too, initially jumped onto the "bash the three companies" bandwagon without checking things out first, and even called for a boycott of the three (as I wrote about in "Liora's Note"), then edited this off of my original blog when I received responses from Stonyfield and Organic Valley as to what they were trying to do. I must admit that the 3 companies tried the best that they could to stop the deregulation of GE roundup-ready Alfalfa, and realizing this was not possible, fought hard to give organic farmers some protections (i.e. monetary compensation and protection from being sued by Monsanto for "copyright" infringement as they've done to other farmers who's crops have been contaminated by GE seed). Ultimately, this failed too.

I don't have any reason to bash Stonyfield Farm or Organic Valley, but for the reasons I stated in my blog (see "Liora's Note"), I have other reasons not to like Whole Foods Market--I haven't like them for years now, well before the OCA-Cummins bashing.

I have to agree with Cummins, though, that "co-existence" with GE crops is a fallacy, as has already been proven with genetic drift into conventional and organic fields. The only way to prevent this is to prevent new GE crops from being planted, and to squelch the GE industry.

This sounds impossible to do, but in Europe it has been accomplished by educating the public about what's in their food. Since labeling of foods is mandatory, and Europeans don't want to eat GMO'd foods, the GE industry has less than a toe-hold in Europe. I think OCA-Cummins is on the right track when he calls for mandatory labeling of foods. If consumers in the U.S realize that 80% of the foods they buy have GE in them, they, hopefully, will revolt, and refuse to buy the stuff. If they refuse to buy it, it will signal the death-knell for GE crops in the U.S. That's why Big Ag is fighting so hard to prevent such a regulation from happening. I'd like to see Whole Foods Market be brave and "put their money where their mouth is", and be the first large chain grocer to VOLUNTARILY label their foods, even it no government regulation for mandatory labeling is passed. They do sell a lot of food that is non-organic, and I'm sure a lot of it has GE food in it. If Whole Foods were to be a leader in this, they would redeem themselves in my eyes.

By and large, Americans are ignorant people. It's been known for YEARS that GE is in the foods we eat, and yet most of us turn our heads the other way and go ahead and buy the stuff anyway. So some of the blame has to fall squarely onto the public's shoulders. Until or unless GE goes down in this country, the only way to ensure we are eating food without it (or at least limited to "trace amounts" of it in organic food) is to grow our own organic food, buy from local organic farmers, buy from small grocers who sell only organic produce, and become a member of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).

Again, thanks for posting these links!
Blessings! Liora