Remember how we were chatting about GMO labels? Food companies seem terrified of labeling, and that fear is infectious: It makes everyone think there really must be a good reason for hiding genetically modified ingredients.
So far, companies have treated their GMO ingredients like genital warts. A few businesses, like Campbell’s, have decided that people engaging in an intimate relationship with their food deserve to know the facts, but they confess this disclosure in a whisper of fine print. The food labeling law that President Obama recently signed sticks to the same path, letting sensitive companies make their GMO announcements behind the curtain of a scannable QR code.
Soylent — you know, the company behind that chalky meal-in-a-bottle — has charted its own course by embracing GMOs. The company recently doubled down on this strategy by explaining why its “food” is “proudly made with GMOs.” Soylent published an astonishingly comprehensive 2,000-word blog post to explain its reasoning. It will be interesting to see how the strategy works. Then again, what works for a company that can pull off the name Soylent isn’t necessarily a great indicator of what might work for the rest of the food industry.
