Part of GMO Free USA’s mission is to foster consumer rejection of GMOs, until they are proven safe. We aim to speak collectively to force food manufacturers to come clean with the ingredients they use in their products, and to remove untested and potentially harmful genetically modified organisms (GMO). If they won’t remove GMOs, we will boycott them until they do. We will begin with one industry leader until our numbers grow large enough to expand our boycotts.
Kellogg states, “At Kellogg we believe that when you start with a great breakfast, great things can happen. That’s why we make foods that you and your family know, trust and enjoy.” After repeated attempts to get them to be transparent and cooperative on the issue of GMOs, in the interest of the health and well being of their customers, we only got the cold shoulder.
We began with and targeted Kellogg, an American icon since 1906, because of its heavy marketing to children and its wholesome family image. While all people – children, teens, and adults – should be concerned with their health, children are most vulnerable because their bodies are still developing. Increasing evidence suggests that long term consumption of GMOs is harmful and that the escalated use of toxic herbicides and pesticides in GMO agriculture is compounding the problem.
Additionally, Kellogg was chosen because they sell the same products abroad, in countries that require the labeling of genetically engineered foods, but without using genetically engineered ingredients. Americans deserve the same.
According to the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University, marketing of cereals to children has increased significantly over the years. RCFPO’s first study found that the least healthy breakfast cereals are those most frequently and aggressively marketed directly to children as young as age two. Kellogg is one of two companies that led in child-targeted marketing, in spite of their participation in the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), the food industry’s self-regulatory program.
Kellogg’s total advertising for their child and family cereal brands came in at $162.3 million in 2011. On the other side of the coin, Kellogg’s contributed a total of $1,012,522 towards deceptive advertising to help defeat voter ballot initiatives for mandatory GMO food labeling in California in 2012, and in Washington state in 2013.
Their participation in Washington state was particularly appalling, having channeled money through a money laundering scheme concocted by the Grocery Manufacturers Association which was determined to be illegal by Washington’s Attorney General.
So not only does Kellogg market its most nutritionally deficient products to children, all of which contain GMOs and toxic chemicals, they decisively bet against Democracy and peoples’ freedom to choose by funding propaganda campaigns designed to trick people into voting against their own best interests.
Well Kellogg, we used to know, trust, and enjoy your foods, but not anymore! We will continue to grow this boycott. We will ramp up our efforts in the coming months. And we will not stop until you address and work with us to reach a solution. The solution: remove all GMOs from your products.
Sign two petitions telling Kellogg to remove GMOs here and here.
3 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT
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