Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Other Big Grocers Make Big Decision on GMO Salmon

Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Other Big Grocers Make Big Decision on GMO Salmon

www.takepart.com

A number of major grocery chains announced today they’re not waiting for the Food and Drug Administration to approve AquaBounty’s genetically modified salmon. Instead? They’ve made a pledge to their customers that they will not carry the controversial fish in their stores—regardless of what the FDA decides. This marks the first organized pledge made by a group of grocers to not carry GMO seafood.

Trader Joe’s; its sister company, Aldi; Whole Foods; regional chains Marsh Supermarkets (with stores in Indiana and Ohio) and PCC Natural Markets in Washington state; and co-ops in Minnes

(visit the link for the full news article)

Who says the free market doesn't work? The forces of the free market are actually making headway against the fascist-like actions of the federal government being the strong-arm of the private sector (hello Monsanto, Pfizer, Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil, General Electric, etc...)

It didn't take government to 'force' these LARGE alternative food chains to reject GMO salmon even before the FDA approved of it.

Keep getting informed and keep voting with your dollar, maybe this ship can be turned around after all.

www.takepart.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It seems everything is GMO crap these days...

-SAP-

Originally posted by SloAnPainful
It seems everything is GMO crap these days...

-SAP-

Indeed. Even though grass fed meats are expensive, I try to buy as often as I can and eat as little GMO meats as possible (just think of it as this: If it doesn't say its pasture raised or grass-fed, or non-GMO you know its GMO or GMO-fed.

Try to put your money into things you know are grown by a decent farmer that takes pride in his work, I know its tough and inconvenient these days but if everybody puts a little work into it, we can see more headlines like the one in the OP.

reply to post by eLPresidente


Indeed you are correct.



-SAP-

Star & Flag!!!!!

GReat news, little by little, one by one, we'll bring them all into the fold against these GMO's. I don't trust them and won't trust them until they do a 20 year nutritional study, and they can use people who are pro-GMO

Remember the Documentary Supersize-Me? They need to do with with an all GMO diet, while doing routine check-ups, cat scans, etc. I wonder how many pro-GMO'ers would be first in line to star in that one?

Even though grass fed meats are expensive, I try to buy as often as I can and eat as little GMO meats as possible (just think of it as this: If it doesn't say its pasture raised or grass-fed, or non-GMO you know its GMO or GMO-fed.

Try to put your money into things you know are grown by a decent farmer that takes pride in his work, I know its tough and inconvenient these days but if everybody puts a little work into it, we can see more headlines like the one in the OP.

What is wrong with America??

How can grass fed meat (grass grows for FREE btw) cost more than meat from an animal that is fed hormone filled garbage and modified genetically?

All of the processes involved in making the food, keeping the animal confined, breeding it unnnaturally, stopping it from getting ill because it is being forced to live in a manner that it should never ever be forced to cost money. In contrast an animal that is born for free via the natural mating process and lives and grows for very little money and usually is far healthier because it lives as nature intended requires little human intervention other than helping manage the levels of grass i.e ration them through the available grass in order to make sure they never go hungry.

As the son of a farmer from New Zealand, I just don't get it! Something is very sick in your system America and someone is enforcing hidden and non production related costs of grass fed beef if it is dearer than your concentration camp style factory farm product. Someone needs to do a shockumentary on the whole factory farming process, expose it for what it is and force some change.

The people deserve to know what they're eating and I'm glad there are those out there that understand that.

Looks like I found a new place to shop!

reply to post by markosity1973


The reason is that grass fed beef takes longer to fatten up for sale. Grains and hormones mean you can sell your beasts quicker.

The FDA approves what they're told to approve. They're an integral part of the giant greed and corruption machine and not so much an entity trying to "protect consumers". Bought and paid for long ago by Big Pharma and Big Agriculture.

Like the article states, unless labelling laws are in place, we won't know which salmon is which. Will the retailers even know? I'm guessing the source of any given shipment can easily enough be conceiled.

reply to post by markosity1973


The demand for beef is very high in the U.S. As someone else replied to you already, it takes too long for a cow to mature and breed naturally. If they switched all these cows to a grass diet, there probably wouldn't be enough land and grass to feed them all. I would highly prefer to eat grass-fed cows, but they don't mark it on the packaging as far as I can tell. If all cows were suddenly grass-fed, the prices would sky-rocket. Cutting down on red meat would be a life-saver for a lot of Americans, but they like their hamburgers and steaks. Can't blame them too much. That stuff tastes pretty damned good.

reply to post by eLPresidente


That is awesome news. I shop at Trader Joe's exclusively for my groceries. It's nice to be able to walk into a store and let your guard down a little, knowing that someone is looking out for you. Not that I trust anyone 100%, but I definitely trust them more than Ralphs.

reply to post by eLPresidente


GREAT move! Hats of to all of them. Now if us consumers would demand our stores STOP selling genetically modified foods to us PERIOD. STOP buying from ANY store that sells the crap, THEN these non-caring vendors would lose money and the stores that choose to provide proper food would prosper. How hard is that?

Huzzah!! I have to applaud any store for refusal to sell GMO salmon. GMO could be one of the worst things to happen to us. Sure it increases the harvest and pest resistance for crops, but the unknown effects linger. Only time will tell the long-term effects of GMO. wasn't it recently that a mysterious viral DNA was discovered in GMO foods? A virus that has unknown effects? I don;t know if that has been resolved, but it seems to soon to have any possible result. Non-GMO is more expensive, but weel worth it when it comes to the health of ourselves and our families.
Well done!!!

This will create a giant %$#tstorm in a matter of weeks.

Said Frankenstein building company will immediately demand that their GMO fish, the fish the are proud of creating, be recognized as NOT GMO at all, and they are being unfairly prejudiced against by the label of GMO (yet last week they were proud of their GMO creation).

They will then demand, and GET, a new law that will state that labeling is unlawful, and all fish, simply because the are fish in the most real terms, are all the same. Watch. Free market never wins.

Originally posted by crankyoldman
This will create a giant %$#tstorm in a matter of weeks.

Said Frankenstein building company will immediately demand that their GMO fish, the fish the are proud of creating, be recognized as NOT GMO at all, and they are being unfairly prejudiced against by the label of GMO (yet last week they were proud of their GMO creation).

They will then demand, and GET, a new law that will state that labeling is unlawful, and all fish, simply because the are fish in the most real terms, are all the same. Watch. Free market never wins.

They'll get it declared GRAS, and then feel like they are home free. After that? you're right. It will be impossible to know.

Temporary solution? Only eat wild caught salmon. This will work until the Frankenfish Salmon escape into the wild and interbreed. So, I figure we have a few years left for salmon being on our table.

Slowly, one thing at a time, our foods are being utterly ruined.

There is no reason to eat GMO. To anyone who says that we have been doing it for thousands of years, that is not true. We have been cross-pollinating varieties of the same species.

Even bigger stores like wally world, target are starting to use better ingredients in their store brands. I wish there was a federal labeling law on GM foods. Sadly never going to happen. I like going to Asian stores for fish, usually have a lot of smaller fresh caught stuff. The rarer types of ingredients usually don't have enough market to force GM.

reply to post by eLPresidente


I would be ok with GMO salmon if they weren't fed GMO corn.


Even farm-raised salmon who are fed a traditional fish meal (basically ground up fish paste) are a better choice than a corn-fed salmon. This issue all comes down to fats. Corn is high in Omega-6 fatty acids, with a poor ratio to Omega-3/Omega-9 fatty acids. This does lead to increased fat and growth in the fish, primarily due to inflammation responses. Once that fat gets into you, you get increased fat and growth in your body, primarily due to inflammation responses.

It doesn't matter if the corn is GMO or not. It's the corn feed.

reply to post by JustSlowlyBackAway


My hats off to Trader Joe's on making another good move on the behalf of health conscious consumers.

You do make a horrifying point that these "Frankenfish" could get out or be released intentionally into the wild salmon populace and then only DNA sequencing would be able to tell them apart (hopefully). We are becoming a sick nation and unfortunately the population is so dumbed down and complacent they don't realize the food companies are trying to kill off the lower classes by offering them chemical laden, and GMO food.

reply to post by SprocketUK

I get that it will fatten faster but the animal still needs to grow to adult size first - a couple of years usually. We do have grain feeding facilities here downunder too. Grain fed beef is grown for the taste, not the speed at which it fattens though. You can also feed the same animal grass based foods - silage which is like a pickled grass and hay. Both of these foods will make an animal fatten faster as well and are totally natural.

A cow's stomach can not actually digest corn believe it or not - when a cow excretes it is normal to see a lot of whole undigested corn kernels in it's pooh. In fact in some factory farms the vile and penny pinching process of filtering out said corn kernels out of the cow dung and feeding it to pigs is common practise - I kid you not!

Fattening animals all about calories and expended energy, just like in humans. This is why the factory farms are forcing the animals into miserable conditions in holding pens - to stop the animals from moving and using energy so they will get fat faster. The hormone fed grain food is high calorie and full of growth hormones to make the animal grow unnaturally.

Just because we can use these processes to make and animal ready for slaughter faster does not mean we should. I am no vegetarian, but I for one believe that any animal that I eat should have lead as natural as possible existence before ending on my table. Cheaper price at the supermarket usually means that the animal has been mistreated in it's life.

Whether it be GMO salmon, grainfed beef, barn raised poultry or stall raised pork / veak we all should be avoiding it for two reasons; The end product is full of unnatural things and the poor animal has not lived a healthy and natural life. Animals really do have emotions and they do get depressed especially happens when they are confined and made to live in an environment that is not natural to them. What people are actually eating when they eat the abovementioned foods is a plate of misery. Misery from the animals life and misery in your own because those hormones and unnatural things are piling up in your body and doing unnatural things to you too. We are what we eat after all and the same goes for the meat you eat - it is what it was fed.

Remember all of this next time you go to the supermarket and hum and ha over whether to buy the cheaper meat or the dearer one that says it is free range or grassfed. If the market demands a better product, it will force the industry to change it's ways.