--- title: The GMO Controversy Misses the Point description: Food makers have a long history of using unsubstantiated health claims to sell food. canonical: https://time.com/3853556/gmo-controversy-misses-the-point/ author: Nathanael Johnson article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-11T17:16:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:07:56.711Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The GMO Controversy Misses the Point og:description: Food companies capitalize on our risk blindness. og:url: https://time.com/3853556/gmo-controversy-misses-the-point/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8de5ff6329dc0d5b/6987ef353c16399f45455f30/chipotle-gmo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Chipotle restaurant workers fill orders for customers on the day that the company announced it will only use non-GMO ingredients in its food on April 27, 2015 in Miami, Florida. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The GMO Controversy Misses the Point twitter:description: Food companies capitalize on our risk blindness. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8de5ff6329dc0d5b/6987ef353c16399f45455f30/chipotle-gmo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The GMO Controversy Misses the Point > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=acc3a35c-7c87-40f4-a42f-8d50db369bd4&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: GMO Food Bill Moves Forward Amid Animosity And Confusion [Watch (HLS stream): GMO Food Bill Moves Forward Amid Animosity And Confusion](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/c3RMd4XP.m3u8) (1:19)  _Published 2015-07-24. The House approved a bill barring states from requiring labels on GMO-based foods. The bill is controversial, to say the least._ by [Nathanael Johnson](https://time.com/author/nathanael-johnson/) ## Nathanael Johnson May 11, 2015 5:16 PM UTC The House approved a bill barring states from requiring labels on GMO-based foods. The bill is controversial, to say the least. by [Nathanael Johnson](https://time.com/author/nathanael-johnson/) ## Nathanael Johnson May 11, 2015 5:16 PM UTC Several food companies have recently reformed their menus: McDonald’s will [stop](http://time.com/3731767/mcdonalds-antibiotic-chicken/) using chicken treated with human antibiotics, Chipotle is going [GMO-free](http://time.com/3836356/chipotle-genetically-modified-food-gmo/), Panera is [eliminating](http://time.com/3846770/panera-bread-ingredients/) a long list of ingredients, Pepsi is [abandoning](http://time.com/3834685/diet-pepsi-aspartame/) the use of aspartame, and Kraft is [removing](http://time.com/3829094/kraft-mac-and-cheese-color/) the colors from its mac and cheese. All this is certainly good for business: These companies are responding to their customers, and showing they care. But is it good for us? That is, will it improve public and environmental health? Some will, some won’t, and it’s crucial to differentiate. Getting farm animals off medically important antibiotics is a good idea. Every time we deploy antibiotics, germs evolve, and resistance spreads. We’re rapidly running out of ways to kill these antibiotic-resistant bugs. The germs that make people sick are different from the germs that make farm animals sick, but bacteria can trade the genetic code for antibiotic-resistance across species. Now companies such as McDonald’s, Perdue, and Tyson are taking significant steps to reduce antibiotic use. When you try to weigh the effects of the rest of these menu changes, things get pretty muddy pretty fast. The food coloring that makes macaroni and cheese that neon orange is potentially connected to various health issues. But there are more studies suggesting they are safe than those suggesting these colors have any risk. The evidence on [aspartame](http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/aspartame) is similar: There are studies that suggest a troubling connection to cancer, and then there are others that show no association with cancer. Pepsi is replacing aspartame with another artificial sweetener, sucralose, which simply hasn’t been studied as much. Panera is basically removing every ingredient with a science-y sounding name. Some of these are potentially bad (again, things like food-coloring), but others are almost certainly benign. For instance, Panera is cutting caffeine (what were they adding caffeine to anyway?), and vanillin—the chemical that grows in vanilla beans and gives them their distinctive scent. Chipotle’s GMO ban is also fairly superficial. Most of the sane debate (and believe me, there’s plenty of insane debate) on GMOs is not about health hazards, but about the high-tech farming practices associated with genetically engineered seed. Chipotle is ditching GMO seed, but keeping the industrial farming. Chipotle’s corn will be sprayed with less of the herbicide glyphosate, but more of the herbicide atrazine. Instead of repelling pests with corn genetically engineered to resist insects, Chipotle’s farmers will be more likely to use other insecticides. Instead of getting oil from soybeans _genetically engineered_ to tolerate being sprayed with herbicides, Chipotle is getting oil from sunflowers _conventionally bred_ to tolerate being sprayed with herbicides. In the public debate, the term GMO is a symbol that stands in for heavy pesticide use and environmentally dubious farming practices. Chipotle is just changing the symbol, not the things it symbolizes. Instead of improving transparency, public-relations moves generally make the food system more opaque. Chipotle’s PR move is a bad deal for the public if it makes an idealistic young person think that by eating GMO-free burritos, they are fixing agriculture. Panera’s PR move is truly insidious if it convinces a single overweight dad that his high-calorie panini lunch is healthy. Food makers have a long history of using insubstantial health claims to sell food. Wonder Bread was the progenitor (“Builds strong bodies”), and that’s led to gluten-free Cocoa Pebbles, and POM promising its sugar water will help you “cheat death.” The trick is to provide eaters with an icon that seems to indicate health and quality, while actually doing almost nothing. We tend to worry about the wrong things—Ebola, airplane crashes, and chemicals in food—while ignoring real dangers—car crashes, obesity, and climate change. Food companies capitalize on our risk blindness. It’s cheaper to make a superficial shift. As a Chipotle executive [noted](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/business/chipotle-to-stop-serving-genetically-altered-food.html), the cost of eliminating GMOs was _“de minimis_.” Real change, like eliminating antibiotics, affects the bottom line. If consumers can’t differentiate between real and token changes, which do you think companies will choose? ## Transcript The US House of Representatives passed a bill barring states from requiring GMO labels on bioengineered foods, and the political divide is so deep, it even affects the name of the bill. The Republican- controlled House passed the bill under the name the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, but some liberal consumer groups and Congress members prefer the Denying Americans The Right To Know or DARK Act. Supporters say it will keep food costs down and keep agriculture less complicated. The bill would override state legislatures that have passed laws requiring companies using genetically modified organisms or GMOs include that information on food labels. Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine have already passed such laws. In a Facebook post, the House Agriculture Committee said, this bill establishes a voluntary, nation- wide program that gives consumers what they want while protecting advancements in Food production technology and innovation. As you may have gathered from the name Dark Act, detractors aren't too happy. They say it keeps consumers in the dark about the real ingredients in their food. The science around GMOs has been clouded in a debate. A Pew Research study showed that 88 percent of scientists think GMOs are safe for consumption. But only 37 % of American adults think the same. 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