Non-GMO Month: What’s the next decade hold?

The Non-GMO Project just celebrated its tenth Non-GMO Month, and New Hope interviewed the Project’s leader, Megan Westgate, for an update. The Project educates consumers about GMOs and established a labeling system allowing them to make informed choices regarding food. Families, food companies, and farmers who share this vision have provided consistent support to the effort.

Non-GMO Month focuses on educating retailers and customers. All organizations need to work together toward sustainable agriculture—fair trade, organic, non-GMO, Rainforest Alliance, Global Animal Partnership and others, Westgate said. “Being non-GMO is not enough, but it’s a start,” she said. “At the core of being non-GMO is the recognition that nothing happens in isolation in nature. Everything is connected.”

She spoke of “blue-dot” millennials (blue dots at the center of their phone screens) who want premium organic, natural, non-GMO food in new places and formats at their fingertips.

Westgate warned of emerging genetic engineering techniques (gene editing, gene silencing), producing GMOs “just as bad as the old ones.” Despite massive environmental damage from raising GM crops, she sees some positives: a non-GMO feed mill now exists in Iowa, sourcing non-GMO feed for the non-GMO meat, dairy, and egg products consumers seek. The result is healthier animals, farmer profits, and sustainable livelihoods from farming sustainably.

Westgate added that non-GMO, organic, and regenerative agriculture offer a solution to the largest crisis humanity faces: climate impacts from global warming.

Source: New Hope Network

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