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Campbell’s Soup embraces GMOs and the labeling of them
Campbell’s Soup company’s plan to label products containing GMOs has nothing to do with its confidence in the technology.
“We think GMOs are safe,” stated Kelly Johnston, Campbell’s Soup vice president for government affairs, in an interview with Brownfield Ag News.
In fact, Johnston says his company sees the benefits of biotechnology.
“With a world that’s growing to nine billion people over the next 30 to 40 years with less arable land around the world, we need GMOs as part of the solution to help feed a growing world,” said Johnston.
The primary reason for adding the labels is the company’s aim for transparency and to adhere to Campbell’s Soup’s stated purpose: “Real food that matters for life’s moments.”
“Because our consumers, especially the younger consumers, want to know more about their food, where it comes from, what’s in it, why it’s there,” said Johnston, “and we’ve embraced the decision to tell them.”
In addition to that is the Vermont labeling law that Johnston says the company doesn’t like very much, in part, says Johnston, because the law calls for labels to say that a food is partially produced or may be produced with genetic engineering, but he says the Vermont labels will not necessarily say what in the product is genetically engineered. Johnston says Campbell’s can’t risk violations.
“There are very serious penalties, up to $1,000 fine on each individual product that is not properly labeled in Vermont,” Johnston said. “We decided we can’t take the risk. Anything pretty much that’s being sold in the eastern half of the U.S., and even beyond that, is going to have the Vermont label on it.”
The company will leave their products as is even after the labels are in place.
“We have no plans to reformulate our products to address [labeling],” said Johnston. “Roughly three-fourths of our products are made with one or more GMOs presently, we have no plans to do any major reformulations of any of those products because of this labeling law or anything else we may choose to support down the road.”
Johnston says Campbell’s consumer tests with labels have revealed that even when people have concerns about GMOs, their buying habits are changed very little by the fact that foods contain GMOs.
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