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New Hope Network recently released a report called Food Tech in Natural Products: Precision Fermentation Market Risks and Readiness, a blatant attempt to justify its inclusion of GMO 2.0 foods (specifically, precision fermentation) at its Natural Products Expos.
Yet, buried on page 10 of its report, it was found that 92% of Natural Product Expo buyers do not believe that precision fermentation/GMO 2.0 technologies are “enabling positive product innovations that should be part of the natural products industry.”
This should have been enough to end the discussion and ban all GMO 2.0 foods at Natural Products Expo.
Instead, this report does the opposite.
It parses data and shows CEOs, marketers and product developers in the natural products industry how to effectively incorporate and utilize precision fermentation (GMO 2.0), despite the fact that New Hope fully acknowledges that “precision fermentation may not be natural.”
More than anything, this report is seeking to normalize precision fermentation (GMO 2.0), paving the way for its growing presence on trade show floors, on educational panels and in industry reports.
“Companies call these things ‘synthetic biology’ and ‘fermentation technology,’ but these foods are all just GMOs,” said Michael Hansen, PhD, senior staff scientist at Consumer Reports. “They are using terms people do not understand, so that people will not realize these are GMO ingredients.”
New Hope says that since its founding in 1975, it “has worked to steward a movement that began as a counter-culture challenge to the status quo in a food system that failed to prioritize human health,” a statement that would seem to put the organization at great odds with GMO 2.0 foods.
“These are often highly processed foods, which are associated with increased calorie intake and weight gain, according to a study from the National Institute of Health,” put forth Michael Hansen, PhD. “Also, these companies are introducing novel, genetically-engineered proteins into the food supply that will have unknown potential impacts on the human microbiome and the environment, and they are self-affirming GRAS status with the FDA, a voluntary process that is incredibly problematic and falls very, very short of protecting the consumer.”
THE POLAR OPPOSITE OF WHAT THE ORGANIC INDUSTRY REPRESENTS
For organic advocates, the anger and confusion of seeing GMO 2.0 foods at Natural Products Expo West began in 2019, when Impossible Foods served its genetically-engineered Impossible Burgers at its booth in the North Tower.
After the COVID hiatus, it further escalated at Natural Products Expo West 2022, when we were told during The State of Organic & Natural keynote presentation that “The only way we are going to meet demand, as a planet, is through cultured meat” — laboratory-grown meat or GMO 2.0 meat.
For those of us who have an unwavering commitment to organic, genetic engineering is not something that we view as innocuous and is anathema to everything we believe in.
GMOs and their corresponding pesticides have inflicted incalculable harm across the country, primarily through seed and pesticide drift.
In fact, the super-toxic herbicide dicamba has been so devastating that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the chemical has “torn apart the social fabric of many farming communities” due to the property damage caused by its spraying on genetically-engineered soybeans and the ensuing conflict between neighbors.
Aside from the visible damage GMOs have caused, the people inventing these technologies even have real doubts and concerns.
Caius Rommens, PhD, inventor of the GMO potato that uses RNAi gene silencing to prevent potatoes from bruising, said, “Consumers should understand that it is impossible for genetic engineers to understand all the consequences of a particular genetic modification. Some of these consequences are very indirect and may become apparent only after ten or twenty years. Genetic engineering is very risky, and it is akin to editing a book without understanding the language. Scientists engaging in such work are destined to make mistakes.”
A MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL RELATIONSHIP — UNTIL NOW
For decades, New Hope and the organic industry have both benefitted from a long-standing partnership in numerous ways.
Expo West and Expo East have served as critical meeting points for buyers, brands, suppliers and the press, and the organic industry would absolutely not be where it is today without these shows. New Hope has also helped champion organic and regenerative organic through its media channels, promotional platforms and educational panels.
Alternatively, organic companies annually spend many tens of millions on booths and promotional activities at New Hope trade shows, and the organic industry has played an absolutely pivotal role in helping it grow into a massive business that has come to dominate the U.S. organic trade show landscape.
New Hope claims that its “primary goal is to be of service to the natural and organic products industry.”
Yet, given everything presented in its new report, it is reasonable to question whether that is, in fact, still the case.
Organic brands need to ask themselves if they want to direct their hard-earned marketing dollars to an organization that so openly embraces genetic engineering and to share trade show floor space with companies that represent an existential threat to their business.
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To read New Hope’s letter to the natural products industry, click HERE.
To read New Hope’s report Food Tech in Natural Products: Precision Fermentation Market Risks and Readiness, click HERE.
(Are these the type of companies that organic brands want to share trade show floor space with?)
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With gratitude, 
Max Goldberg, Founder |
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