Tell Kellogg’s Where to Put Their Snap, Their Crackle and Their Pop

GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SUGAR TO HIT STORES IN 2008 and it starts with American Crystal, a large Wyoming-based sugar company, who recently launched an "organic" line of their sugar. Several other leading U.S. sugar providers have announced they will be joining American Crystal in the endeavor and source their sugar from genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets. Like GE corn and GE soy, products containing GE sugar will not be labeled as such. Since half of the granulated sugar in the U.S. comes from sugar beets, a move towards biotech beets marks a dramatic alteration of the U.S. food supply. These sugars, along with GE corn and soy, are found in many conventional food products, so consumers will be exposed to genetically engineered ingredients in just about every non-organic multiple-ingredient product they purchase. To make a bad situation even worse, GE sugar beets are designed to withstand strong doses of Monsanto's controversial broad spectrum Roundup herbicide. Studies indicate farmers planting "Roundup Ready" corn and soy spray large amounts of the herbicide, contaminating both soil and water.

The Organic Consumers Association recently took issue with this move and along with their allies, sent a letter to Kellogg’s on June 12, requesting that they NOT use sugar from genetically engineered sugar beets, and if they did choose to use the sugar beets, that they should be prepared for a consumer boycott.

It appears as if though Kellogg’s could care less.

In a response to Mr. Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association, David Mackay, President/CEO of Kellogg’s said, “Being a global organization, our focus has always been on meeting the needs of our consumers worldwide and being responsive to a variety of consumer preferences. Our decisions on whether or not to use biotech ingredients are made on a market-by-market basis and depend on a variety of factors specific to each market.

Mackay went on to discuss how, “concerns about biotech ingredients in food production are low” in the US, whereas, “public acceptance of biotechnology in Europe is lower than in the United States and as a result, all Kellogg products sold in Europe are free of any ingredients derived from biotech sources.”

Hello! WTF!! How in the WORLD can we allow this to happen! In Europe, where news of the dangers of GE food consumption is common knowledge, they don’t put biotech ingredients in their products?? But here, in the US where apparently concerns are low, they will poison us???

Give ME A BREAK! Put your money where your health is and refuse to purchase products that could contain GE ingredients. Put your money where your children’s health is and buy local, buy organic and say ENOUGH.

And write your congressman, your senator and your elected officials; tell them to pick up the stump speeches Senator John Edwards, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, and Senator Chris Dodd, spoke so passionately about last October. Each one of them stood in Iowa and promised they would push for mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods if elected. Make this a priority, tell your friends and let us stand up like our European neighbors and say, not in our food supply!!!