Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Major Grocer to Label Foods With Gene-Modified Content


Strom, Stephanie. "Major Grocer to Label Foods With Gene-Modified Content." The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 Mar. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/09/business/grocery-chain-to-require-labels-for-genetically-modified-food.html?pagewanted=all>. 


In the article,  “Major Grocer to Label Foods With Gene-Modified Content”, the author discusses the fact that Whole Foods is going to be trying something new in regards to genetically modified foods. Whole Foods Market will become the first retailer in the United States to require labeling of all genetically modified foods sold in its stores.  The president of Whole Foods said that this labeling requirement will be in place within five years and was instated because of consumer demand. According to the president of Whole Foods, manufacturers have seen a fifteen percent increase in sales of products that are labeled. Although there is much support for this new act, there is also opposition; “The Grocery Manufacturers Association, the trade group that represents major food companies and retailers, issued a statement opposing the move. “These labels could mislead consumers into believing that these food products are somehow different of present a special risk or a potential risk,”” It is important to note that the FDA has deemed genetically modified products safe.
            This is very interesting since we have recently been talking about genetically modified organisms and how they should be treated. This is also very important for the future since as we all grow older, food will be changing with us and the way sellers will deal with the changes will be very interesting.
            I believe that this author did a great job with the article. The article covered an issue that is very relevant at this time. Overall I enjoyed this article because I thought it was very informative. 

1 comment:

  1. Naomi did a nice job reviewing the New York Times article, “Major Grocer to Label Foods With Gene-Modified Content,” by Stephanie Strom. First off, I liked that Naomi chose to review this article, for, as she says, “we have recently been talking about genetically modified organisms.” This article is very relevant to what we have been going over in class. I also appreciated Naomi’s use of quotes from the article. I feel that this makes the reviews more interesting to read, for it spices up the summary with some direct information. Finally, I believe that Naomi’s overall summary of the article was well done, for she covered most of the piece’s key points.
    Naomi wrote a good article, but there were a couple of things she could have added to make it even better. For example, she should have connected this article more to the world. GMOs are currently a controversial topic, so it would have been nice to hear Naomi’s view on the impact such a rule will have on the food industry over the upcoming decade (the labels will not be used until 2018). Another example is Naomi’s final paragraph could have been more detailed. She vaguely stated that she found the article interesting and relevant, but did not delve any further into the subject.
    I found this article, and its connected review, to be very informative. I am curious to see if this new rule will inspire other grocery chains to start labeling their foods. However, it is important to remember that Whole Foods is already pro-organic goods, so this rule really isn’t as surprising, and therefore probably wont have as much of an impact, as the article makes it sound.

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