We are officially Non-GMO Project Verified!

Barefoot & Chocolate spreads are now officially Non-GMO Project verified! This marks an important milestone in the Barefoot journey. It reaffirms our commitment to make products with honest ingredients (and that means no GMO’s or artificial anything) and we are excited about that. Like A LOT!

GMO’s have become an ongoing national conversation. Whole Foods became the first national grocery chain to set a deadline for GMO transparency when it announced in March 2013 that by 2018 “all products in its U.S. and Canadian stores must be labeled to indicate if they contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs)”. Then in December 2013, Whole Foods announced that it would stop selling Chobani yogurt by early 2014 to make way for more organic options and brands free of GMOs. The New Yorker recently covered a debate between well-known food activist, Michael Pollan, a vocal skeptic of GMO foods and Pamela Ronald, a prominent plant geneticist and a professor at U.C.-Davis, who had come, at Pollan’s invitation, to present her perspective on the benefits of genetic engineering. Regardless of one’s personal view on GMO’s, the points of discussion are at the very least worthy of a read.

Needless to say, like any debate, when it comes to GMO’s there are two sides to it. Those that assert that the scientific verdict is still out on the safety of GMO foods to those that have strongly endorsed the safety of GM foods including many organizations such as the W.H.O that has consistently stated that “No effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of G.M. foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved”.

Here is the thing, four years ago, when I was pregnant with our son Hayden, I developed an obsession with trying to decode labels. I wanted to understand what was being put in the food I consumed, the cosmetics that I put on everyday, those adorable children’s fleece pajamas I was stocking up on, and the crib mattress that I wanted to buy for our first child. Turns out, “natural flavors” could mean anything really and have very little to do with nature itself, and that dousing children’s PJ’s and mattresses with toxic flame-retardants was mandated by the law.

So what does all of that have to do with GMO’s? Our personal view on GMO’s boils down to one thing: People have the fundamental right to know what is in the food they consume so they can make informed choices for their families and that starts with honest labeling. Period! A national New York Times poll in January 2013 found that 93 percent of respondents said foods containing GMOs should be labeled. Big Ag and food lobbyists should not have the power to decide whether or not GMO’s are safe for consumption and if they should be labeled, the people consuming them should and they have spoken – it’s that simple. The fact is that there is simply not enough data regarding GMO food consumption for anyone to know if they are safe. So we say, JUST LABEL IT and let people decide for themselves.

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