By Michelle Miller
AgDaily
Have agriculture advocates won the battle over GMOs?
It’s a wonderful and attention-grabbing concept, but the short answer is no, and we definitely shouldn’t take our foot off the gas when it comes to science and agricultural communication. We have, however, made significant progress on public perception with regards to understanding the importance of genetically engineered crops in our modern food system. No longer are those who are against GMOs as loud or “in your face” as they used to be. So what happened?
It appears that the non-GMO food industry and many big organic brands have shot themselves in the foot in recent years. Take Chipotle for example. After the fast-food chain announced their “non-GMO” stance back in 2015, an insane amount of backlash ensued. Chipotle became tied up with lawsuits, partly because they still sourced sodas made with GMO corn syrup and the livestock for their meat were still fed GMOs. If you ate at Chipotle between April 27, 2015, and June 30, 2016, you may be entitled to compensation. (Learn more about this and the $6.5 million class-action settlement here.)
This is barely scratching the surface on the horrible things Chipotle has done to the farming community over the years. This is also a reflection of their stock after they made the anti-GMO announcement — and many of the subsequent years have been spent doing damage control over this, not to mention being weighed down by an abysmal food-safety record.