NYTimes Profiles the Non-GMO Project

About two months ago, Whole Foods announced that it would use the Non-GMO Product Verification Program to ensure that private label products were free of genetically-modified organisms. Now, a New York Times profile of Non-GMO Project -- a non-profit collaboration of farmers, manufacturers, retailers, processors, and distributors -- offers a detailed explanation of how the new certification process works, as well as some of the difficulties of keeping crops completely biotech-free.

As GMO Project founder Michael J. Potter tells the Times, all organic foods are supposed to be non-GMO, but the USDA National Organic Program lacks rigorous testing and enforcement. "The organic and natural foods industry is like 'a dirty room' in need of cleaning," as the Times puts it.

The problem is that there's a GMO presence in almost everything, and it's difficult to contain.

"Pollen from a biotech field may be carried by wind or insects to fertilize plants in a nonbiotech plot. At harvest and afterward, biotech and nonbiotech crops and their byproducts are often handled with the same farm equipment, trucks and so on. If the equipment is not properly cleaned, the two types of foodstuffs can mix.

While federal organic regulations bar farmers from planting genetically engineered seed, they are silent on what should be done about issues like pollination from nearby biotech crops. Few regulations govern foods labeled “natural,” but retailers say consumers of those products want them to be free of genetically engineered ingredients."

And here's what the Non-GMO Project is doing:

"The project will not try to guarantee that foods are entirely free of genetically modified ingredients, but that manufacturers have followed procedures, including testing, to ensure that crucial ingredients contain no more than 0.9 percent of biotech material. That is the same threshold used in Europe, where labeling is required if products contain higher levels."

-Mark