Farm co-op avoids crop gene modification

MOSCOW, Idaho – To remain competitive in markets for grains, beans and peas, one farm cooperative in the region has gotten 14 of its products certified as containing no genetically modified organisms.

These products of the Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative, a 700-member group based in Genesee, Idaho, have been certified by the Non-GMO Project, a nonprofit organization of agricultural manufacturers, retailers, processors, distributors, farmers, seed companies and consumers.

“People want to know where their food comes from,” said Bill Newbry, the co-op’s chief executive officer. “So many people are health conscious now. They want to know what they’re feeding their families and feeding their children.”

According to the Non-GMO Project, GMOs are organisms that have been created through the gene-splicing techniques of biotechnology. The science allows DNA from one species of a plant to be injected into another species, creating combinations of different genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.

Newbry said the verified products grown by the co-op will carry the Non-GMO Project Verified seal on their new packaging.

The co-op’s non-GMO verified products include green split peas, pedrosillano cafe garbanzo beans, York white garbanzo beans, Shasta yellow lentils, sunrise red lentils, salute barley, Austrian winter peas, five varieties of wheat and two varieties of mustard seed.

To become certified, the co-op provided a list of its products to the Non-GMO Project, which conducted background research on the products and on the cooperative’s facilities, Newbry said. Newbry said as technology and agricultural science advance, more farmers will be faced with the decision to grow genetically modified food or become noncompetitive.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, soybeans and cotton genetically engineered with herbicide-tolerant traits have been the most widely and rapidly adopted genetically altered crops in the U.S.