In the midst of Vermont's campaign to require the labeling of genetically modified foods (GMOs), which led up to the state legislature's recent passage of the GMO-labeling bill, the Brattleboro Food Co-op invited Gary Hirshberg, co-founder and chairman of Stonyfield Farms, as its guest of honor at its annual shareholder meeting last year.
“I'm a proud capitalist,” Hirshberg told us, but there was now a call to action beyond duty to his company.
Long the champion of organic causes, Hirshberg is also the chairman of the Just Label It campaign, becoming a public leader in the stand against Monsanto, the most notorious corporation in the GMO business.
At our shareholder meeting, he spoke knowledgeably on the subject, citing, for example, how traces of herbicides and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin - used in genetically modified plants like potatoes and tobacco - have been discovered in umbilical-cord blood.