As soon as Cargill announced that an outside group had certified more than a dozen of its ingredients as non-GMO, the agribusiness giant was publicly scourged by some of its closest allies.
The moment should have been a good one for the world's largest agriculture business. But a backlash came fast and furious online, pitting familiar factions against one another: those for and those against genetically modified foods.
The situation highlights the tricky balance large food companies are trying to strike among competing interests. For a sprawling company like Cargill, it shows the challenge of appeasing its customers without alienating its suppliers.
Critics were particular vexed by Cargill's choice of third-party certifier: the Non-GMO Project, which opposes genetic modification in food production. Since Minnetonka-based Cargill is one of the world's largest producers of genetically modified foods, many of its suppliers, as well as some in the science community, felt betrayed.
"The Non-GMO Project regularly uses attacks on family farmers to promote its verification process. It is disappointing that Cargill thought it was acceptable to work with Non-GMO Project and support that messaging," wrote Amanda Zaluckyj, an attorney and self-described "ag-vocate" whose family farms in Michigan, in an e-mail.
She was one of many critics who voiced outrage on social media over Cargill's partnership.
In response, Randy Giroux, Cargill's vice president of food safety, said, "Like many other companies, Cargill's affiliation with the Non-GMO Project is strictly limited to its rigorous verification process. Since there is no federal standard for non-GMO products in the U.S., companies like ours use private standards that the market recognizes. This is the most requested third-party certification among our food and beverage customers."
The federal government did pass a law in July requiring all food manufacturers to label products — either with a word, picture or QR code — that contain GMOs. The law provides a definition for bioengineered foods that some groups, including the Food and Drug Administration, have said may be too narrow. This leaves third-party verifiers as the most sought-after standard.