NCGA Urges Manufacturers to Support Labeling of GMO Foods

IOWA CITY, IA (February 28, 2013) – On behalf of our 134 retail co-ops and their 1.3 million shoppers and owners, National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) has long worked to fight the deregulation of GMOs at the regulatory and legal level. NCGA is a founding member of the National Organic Coalition and a partner in the Just Label It campaign, which calls for mandatory labeling of GMOs.

Now, NCGA is calling upon manufacturers to support consumers’ right to information to make informed purchase decisions in a letter to industry members.

“As the number of state level GMO labeling campaigns increases, NCGA felt it was important to communicate our position on this issue with the industry and reinforce the importance of GMO labeling to our co-ops and their shoppers,” said Robynn Shrader, NCGA’s chief executive officer. “Although we continue to believe that boycotts of companies whose parent organizations contribute to anti-labeling campaigns are ineffective due to the small percentage these brands represent of multi-nationals, we are vigorously leveraging our trade relationships to communicate the values of our co-ops and their shoppers.”

About NCGA

National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA), founded in 1999, is a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops located throughout the United States. NCGA helps unify food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power, and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere. Our 134 member and associate co-ops operate 171 storefronts in 36 states with combined annual sales over $1.5 billion. NCGA is a winner of the dotCoop Global Awards for Cooperative Excellence in recognition of the application of cooperative values and principles to drive cooperative and business success. In 2012, NCGA became a Certified B Corporation, a rigorous certification that recognizes business standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. For a map of NCGA member and associate co-ops, visit www.ncga.coop. To learn more about co-ops, visit www.strongertogether.coop or www.go.coop.