News

General Mills to consider non-gmo proposal

General Mills will hold their annual shareholders meeting in Minneapolis on Tuesday.  One of the proposals expected to come to the floor calls for the board of directors to “adopt a policy of removing genetically engineered crops, organisms or ingredients from products sold or manufactured by the company.”  The proposal calls for the board to have a plan in place for implementation by October of 2015.  And that the policy would remain in effect “until and unless long-term studies show that the genetically engineered crops and associated farming practices are not harmful to the environment, food security or human or animal health.”

The board of directors has unanimously recommended that shareholders reject the proposal stating: “Global food safety experts agree that there has not been a single incident of harm to health or safety demonstrably linked to the use of GM ingredients anywhere in the world.”

General Mills did move to non-gmo Cheerios earlier this year and the company has acquired a number of smaller organic and natural foods companies.  Most recently they announced the purchase of California-based Annie’s Totally Natural Foods for $820 million.  That deal is expected to close later this year.