Trader Joe's goes GE-free

Tuesday, November 20, 2001
By Environmental News Network

By this time next year, all Trader Joe's private label products should be GE-Free. The specialty grocery chain has responded to pressure from consumers and environmental groups who would rather not eat foods made from genetically engineered crops.

Eighty-five percent of the products sold at Trader Joe's stores carry the company's private label. Trader Joe's CEO Dan Bane made the announcement at company headquarters in Los Angeles and promised that the national grocery chain would ensure that its source ingredients are not genetically engineered.

"Effective immediately," said Bane, "we will work with any new vendor to produce private label products for Trader Joe's without genetically engineered ingredients. Our goal for existing private label products is to have all such products reformulated, if necessary, and certified within one year."

Bane said the decision came after "talking with our customers, reviewing food production methods with our vendors and studying the issues related to genetically engineered foods" for the past several months.

Trader Joe's acknowledged that 90 to 95 percent of customers said they want the chain to stop using genetically engineered ingredients.

"While there is a great deal of passion regarding this matter among customers and the public at large, it is clear to us that if given the opportunity, the majority of our customers would prefer to have products made without genetically engineered ingredients," Bane said.

"We'd been leafletting Trader Joe's in Scarsdale and Larchmont," said Andy Zimmerman, an activist with the New York State Greens. "I'm so happy Trader Joe's listened. Now people who want safe food have a new place to shop."

Trader Joe's has 159 stores in 15 states. The chain will develop a program of random testing to verify the certifications and on-going compliance of our vendors.

A genetically engineered organism has been modified by altering one or more genes by transfering a gene of interest from one organism to another. A gene of interest might be one that provides greater resistance to pests, diseases or chemicals used to destroy weeds in the field, or one that allows a fruit to grow larger.

The first genetically altered plant created was a tobacco plant with resistance to antibiotics in 1983. It was almost 10 years later when the first commercial genetically altered crop, a delayed ripening tomato, was commercially released.

Today, corn and soy are the two most commonly used food crops that have been genetically altered, but genetically engineered tomatoes, sugarbeets, canola, cotton, flax, squash, papaya, and rice also exist. There is even a coffee that is genetically engineered to be caffeine free.

A Trader Joe's spokesperson said the company is confident it can source non-GE ingredients. But Bane reminded consumers that there is no system in the United States to completely guard against "adventitious contamination" from the genetic drift by genetically engineered crop to non-genetically engineered crops.

Therefore, "it is not possible for any supplier or retailer to realistically offer any guarantee that their products are GMO-free," he said.

Greenpeace, GE-Free LA and Northwest RAGE launched a campaign against the chain to force a change to its policy on the use of genetically engineered foods.

A nationwide Day of Action against Trader Joe's took place on April 17 just before Earth Day, to publicize the campaign. The GE-Free Market Coalition was formed in September of this year to focus national attention on the Trader Joe's campaign. The coalition includes Greenpeace, GE-Free L.A, Organic Consumers Association, GE-Free Marin, NW RAGE, New York State Greens, Genetic Engineering Action Network, GeneWise of Chicago, and the Safe Foods Campaign, based in New England.

Thousands of consumers around the country have sent faxes, e-mails and letters to the company, and protested outside Trader Joe's stores in over 20 cities. One of Trader Joe's competitors, the Whole Foods grocery chain has already gone GE-Free in its store brand products.

The position of the U.S. government during both the Clinton and Bush administrations has been in favor of genetic engineering of food crops. Currently, there are no recognized U.S. government standards regarding the labeling of genetically engineered foods. The marketplace rather than government regulation appears to be setting the standard for genetically engineered products in the United States.

Three agencies are primarily responsible for regulating biotechnology in the United States -- the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The FDA's biotechnology policy treats substances intentionally added to food through genetic engineering as food additives if they are significantly different in structure, function, or amount than substances currently found in food.

"Many of the food crops currently being developed using biotechnology do not contain substances that are significantly different from those already in the diet and thus do not require pre-market approval," the agency says.

Bane said Trader Joe's is encouraging its customers to write to their congressional representatives, the FDA and the Department of Agriculture "to let them know how you feel about genetic engineering of the food supply and the lack of labeling standards for such products."

"Only by developing a national standard related to this issue," said Bane, "can food retailers and suppliers provide customers with products and information so they can make informed choices when purchasing food for themselves and their families."