Team Testosterone is on a limited cereal diet. If they had their way, they’d eat Captain Crunch and Lucky Charms every morning, but Enviro-Girl doesn’t want to watch the sugar high–or the subsequent burn out. She’s selective, buying mostly General Mills and Quaker brands supplemented with some organic brands like EnviroKidz. The only Kellogg’s cereal she buys is Rice Krispies. And that’s about to change.
Enviro-Girl’s not too annoyed by Kellogg’s smaller package of cereal for the same cost. A lot of food companies have gone that route to save money–so what if ice cream comes in a smaller container or she’s buying less butter for the same price?
No, Enviro-Girl will boycott Snap, Crackle and Pop because Kellogg’s plans to use Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” sugar beets in their food products. The Current Occupant recently deregulated these genetically engineered sugar beets. The “Roundup Ready Beet” is designed to withstand heavy application of Roundup, Monsanto’s herbicide. Why is this a problem?
* Herbicide-resistant weeds are on the rise, science cannot stay ahead of their evolution so big ag businesses like Monsanto respond by creating more toxic poisons to pour into our soils and groundwater.
* This means more herbicides in our food. And pesticides. Which means more toxic food.
* Sugar beets are wind-pollinated and the biotech sugar beets will cross-pollinate and contaminate any beets.
* Cross-pollination hurts organic farmers and consumers.
* Genetic pollution has an unknown effect on soil, food webs and biodiversity.
Who else is angry at Monsanto and the Bush Adminstration over this issue? Oregon’s Willamette Valley, for one.
And who else besides Enivro-Girl is mad at Kellogg Corporation? Shareholders–for putting its reputation and company at risk for agreeing to use genetically engineered sugar. Consumers consistently say they do not want to eat gene-altered foods, in fact backlash against them is growing. By agreeing to use GE products, Kellogg’s becomes a target and at what cost? Kellogg’s European and operations are phasing out GE foods due to consumer pressure and other food companies, including Heinz, Gerber, Frito Lay and Whole Foods have pledged to remove GE ingredients.
Kellogg’s claims that US consumers do not care if their food contains GE food or not.
Let them know what YOU think by by contacting Kellogg’s at 800-962-1413 OR at their website.
HERE is a complete list of all Kellogg’s products if you care to join the boycott.
Meanwhile, take heart–candy companies like Hershey’s are urging farmers NOT to plant GE sugar beets because of consumer resistance. Yay chocolate!
