January
5, 2014
In
this article, I raise important questions about the
Non-GMO Project (twitter) and its famous butterfly seal
of approval on food products.
The Non-GMO Project is, by far, the largest testing program of its kind in North America. For example, Whole Foods has submitted thousands of its products for verification, so their stores can display the Project seals.
What does the seal actually say?
The
butterfly seal literally reads: “NON-GMO Project VERIFIED.”
I
haven’t changed the capital letters or the lower-case letters. So I’ll ask:
which words do your eyes go to? The words in all-caps?
Read
only the words in all-caps. What do you get? “NON-GMO VERIFIED.”
That
suggests the product in question contains no GMOs, doesn’t it?
But
this is not the case, as I’ll show in a minute.
The
seal’s message is actually: “The Non-GMO Project is verifying . . . something. What is
that something?
The
Project is verifying that its standard has been met—and, as it turns out, that
standard is not “non-GMO product” or “GMO-free.”
Deceptive
advertising?
Through
the use of capital letters, the consumer could very well believe the product
he’s bought has been tested and the results show there are no GMOs.