SOYBEAN.COM's Biotech Education Series

Our Position on Biotechnology
And more specifically, the GMO controversy
Updated May 25, 2000


Greg Caton, Founder, soybean.com by Greg Caton, Founder - SOYBEAN.COM
Intro | GMO Articles
Certification on our Non-GMO Products


In one of our FAQ pages I define the GMO controversy to those who are unfamiliar with it. On that same page I provide links showing that we have distinct lines of organic Non-GMO products, in addition to Non-GMO certified lines we make available to the health foods industry. (So before we go on, it's important to note that the products we make for the health food trade are GMO-free.) Because of all the email and phone calls I received on the GMO issues -- the most common question being, "Are your products GMO-free?" -- I felt compelled to thoroughly study both sides of the issue myself. This wasn't an operational matter: we have the capability of making ANY of our products completely GMO-free (although it raises our production costs through more expensive raw materials). We wanted to determine in our own mind what appeared right, in light of all scientific evidence gathered to date, void of any political influences.
For the last several months we have given considerable effort in trying to show that, in our collective opinion, the position of the FDA, EPA, USDA, Center for Science in the Public Interest, as well as the vast majority of academic minds in the field, is sound. True, we feel that biotechnology is an area that needs tight regulatory control, but none of us in the soybean business have been poisoning the public since GM seed stocks were introduced in 1994 -- not that our opinion makes that much difference. But there you have it. In the course of trying to make our point, however, several of our customers, some of whom felt that the "genetically-modified point" was moot, felt the dialogue was hurt by Lumen Foods not making the "non-GMO" arguments more fully heard. One prominent attorney in the biotechnology debate has gone so far as to say that Monsanto has not been willing to engage him publicly in a fair debate on the subject of bioengineered foods and their safety.
Because we hold our integrity to a high standard, we have now come to the conclusion that if any party is perceived by the public to be deliberately obstructing a fair and impartial debate on the GMO subject, the entire issue will suffer. For our part we would not want to be perceived as an obstructionist in the debate. Our own opinions in this matter must take a backseat to an objective airing of each position, or Lumen Foods stands to be perceived as part of the problem, and not a contributor to a solution -- no matter what we ourselves think.

For this reason we provide links supporting both the sides debate: pro- and anti-biotechnology on our Biotech Education Series page. We invite readers to examine links on both sides of the issue and to come to their own conclusions.
Some organizations, competitors and even advocacy groups, such as The Center for Food Safety have attempted to condemn us, deliberately misrepresenting our position, and in the latter case, even publishing false information without attempting to contact us.
The exploitation of "political correctness" and its effect in suppressing objective public debate is the worst tradegy of the GMO controversy. If I, Greg Caton, have Lumen Foods make Non-GMO products for the health food trade, believing in my heart and mind that biotechnology is not inherently unhealthy or evil, does it make my products less Non-GMO? My competitors and certain organic advocacy groups will try to convince you that it does. Let's try another angle: let us say that a private label account gives me the job of manufacturing his kosher pickles. Okay, great. Now I'm making great kosher pickles. Are they less kosher if I don't convert to Judaism? Viewed in this light, it's easy to see how thoughtful, rational people view some of the antics in the GMO debate as squarely executed in the Theater of the Absurd.
It's an important debate. And to interject McCarthyism isn't going to bring any more clarity.
Ultimately, with regards to what our consumers and retailers ask us to produce, it doesn't matter what our opinions are. I happen to know many people in the trade who think my views on vegetarianism are just plain wacky. (Read my "50 Reasons Why I'm A Vegetarian"). There are plenty of people in the health food trade who love their Big Macs. Am I offended? No. Do I hold it against them that their views don't exactly align with mine? No. Will I stop doing business with any of them until they convert to my way of thinking? No. Are they doing a great job of distributing my vegetarian products and helping people to have a choice of healthy vegetarian proteins over high-fat animal protein products? Yes.
The GMO controversy needs this kind of civility. And whatever course that science and technology takes us, and with whatever means we, as humans, can begin to know what is healthful and life-supporting, there Lumen Foods will be.