The Organic Consumers Association, and other environmental health advocacy groups are taking to task a large number of food and beverage companies they view as “organic traitors” that have been cashing in on the organic movement while actively opposing GMO labeling initiatives.

In it’s latest newsletter, OCA blasted the “gross hypocrisy and greed of large food and beverage corporations selling billions of dollars of organic and natural food, while meanwhile bankrolling the industry opposition to GMO labeling.” Companies implicated as “traitors,” include some of the largest and most popular “natural” brands such as Kashi, Muir Glen, Odwalla and Naked Juice, all of which are owned by major food conglomerates. 

A list of companies the OCA views as “traitors” is available on the organization’s website. Dr. Joseph Mercola, the popular holistic physician blogger has called for an out and out consumer boycott on: Kashi cereals (owned by Kellogg’s), Silk soymilk (owned by Dean Foods), RW Knudsen juices (owned by Smucker’s); Cascadian Farms (owned by General Mills); Honest Tea (owned by Coca Cola); Naked Juice (owned by Pepsi), and “O” Organics (Safeway’s private-label organics line).

The battle over labeling of food products containing ingredients from genetically-modified organism (GMOs), has emerged as one of the most heated and contentious food and health issues in recent memory. It is rapidly coming to a head with the pending Nov. 6 vote on California’s Proposition 37, the so-called “GMO Right to Know” bill that would mandate labeling of any and all foods and beverages that contain GMO ingredients sold in California.

The issue has divided the organic and natural foods world. Some who oppose the bill say that given how widespread GMO wheat, corn and soy are in our food supply,  that the ideal of a pure GMO free organic world is a pipe dream. Others say that the term “organic” applies to how the crops are grown, not their seed source, and that labeling will cause unnecessary consumer fears. Opponents of the bill, which not surprisingly include biotech giant Monsanto, have been spending heavily on lobbying efforts and public outreach.

Advocates of Prop 37—which include major organic players like Nature’s Path, Lundberg Family Farms, Dr. Bronner’s, Eden Foods, and Organic Valley, and thousands of independent organic farmers, say simply that consumers have the right to know whether the foods they eat do or do not contain GMO ingredients.

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