The thousands of clueless hippies who hijacked the Cheerios Facebook page to demand that General Mills get behind putting GMO warning labels on food are disappointed the company isn't convinced any of them buy Cheerios anyway.
At the Fortune Brainstorm Green event in Laguna Niguel, California, Chairman and CEO Kendall Powell didn't get into a lot of science, he just affirmed what everyone who knows any biology knows - GMOs are safe, they are better for the environment, and we should want labels to be meaningful, not like the useless Prop 65 warnings we have on every business in California, which has helped no one but lawyers who make careers out of finding businesses to sue over them, even if they have no harmful chemicals. Powell thinks putting a GMO label on food would be meaningless, which is absolutely true.
If consumers don't want GMOs, they can simply buy Muir Glen and Cascadian Farm from General Mills instead of Cheerios. It's the perfect product for those consumers - it costs more and has no material superior benefit, but it is an intellectual placebo. Anyone who buys an organic pineapple or onion or magic soap is the perfect target market.
Obviously the battle is not over. California Sen. Barbara Boxer has listened to the anti-science pleas of her constituents (California Democrats) and introduced the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act with Rep. Peter DeFazio (another Democrat, that one in Oregon). Fear not, like with her attempt last year, where she got 2 Republicans out of 55 signatories, she has 2 Republicans again, allowing Democrats uncomfortable with the idea that Democrats are anti-science to claim the anti-science is bipartisan.
