USFRA to ramp up its food company outreach on GMOs

The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance announced a new “Straight Talk” campaign on Thursday, hoping to “engage the food industry in a dialogue on sustainable agriculture production.” The campaign comes after last week's message to Dannon expressing concern over a pledge to eliminate GMO feed from some of the animals that produce its dairy products, an unusually blunt move for USFRA.  “This is a different approach for us, but from an agricultural standpoint, we can't sit back anymore and let this happen,” Randy Mooney, the chairman of the National Milk Producers Federation, said on a call with reporters. “When something is out there that's outrageously wrong, all of us are going to have to speak up and attack it.” Dannon is one of several companies that have made corporate pledges relating to GMO ingredients. The Hershey Company has switched away from using genetically modified sugar beets in favor of non-GMO sugar cane. Campbell Soup, Mars Inc., General Mills Inc. and The Kellogg Co. announced plans to voluntarily label products with genetically modified ingredients as Congress struggled to break an impasse on a GMO labeling bill that eventually passed in July.