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Did you know about 75% of U.S.-grown soy ends up in livestock feed or biofuel? In foods made for human consumption, soy mostly appears as highly processed oils, ground meals and starches with little nutritional value. However, the growing world of plant-based food and alternative proteins offers the humble soybean a chance to shine. Soy's high-quality protein is a major player in staple foods such as tofu, tempeh and other alternatives to animal-derived foods.

Soy has a lot to offer in a plant-based diet, particularly if it's non-GMO. More than 95% of U.S.-grown soy is genetically modified, which is why the Non-GMO Project considers soy a high-risk crop. Plus, some GMO developers are using biotechnology and soybeans to create new and unusual products. 

Let's take a look at how the biotech industry is using GMO soy in plant-based foods.

Soy burgers and superweeds

Most GMOs are engineered to withstand weedkillers, which often leads to a dramatic increase in weedkiller application. Research shows that farmers spray GMO crops up to 10 times more than non-GMO crops, and all those extra spray days add up. Since "Roundup Ready" GMOs with resistance to the weedkiller glyphosate entered the market, glyphosate use in the U.S. has increased 15-fold.

Over time, glyphosate overuse leads to "superweeds" that have developed immunity to the weedkiller. Frustrated farmers then turn to even more toxic formulations. For example, in 2016, agrichemical company Monsanto-Bayer released GMO soy with resistance to dicamba, a notoriously volatile weedkiller known to drift off-target. When soy farmers sprayed their fields with dicamba, the drift destroyed millions of acres of neighboring crops, causing massive economic and ecological damage. 

Soy is a common ingredient in many plant-based products (think veggie burgers with soy patties or other protein alternatives such as tofu, tempeh and soy-based dairy products). Seeking out non-GMO options helps support more sustainable farming — with less weedkillers and less collateral damage.

Is this new GMO technique "synbio on steroids"?

Weedkiller resistance is a common trait in early GMOs. Many "first generation" GMOs that entered the market in the 1990s-2000s used foreign DNA to make commodity crops such as soy, corn, cotton, and canola herbicide-tolerant or pest-resistant. Today, there are new generations of GMOs made with emerging techniques entering the food supply, unlabeled and unregulated. New GMO techniques such as synthetic biology and molecular farming can turn a living organism into a "factory" that produces novel compounds such as specific proteins or fats. Here's how it works.

Synthetic biology, or synbio, uses genetically modified microorganisms such as yeast or algae to produce valuable compounds through fermentation. The biotech industry has labeled this process "precision fermentation" to distance its products from unpopular GMOs, but it's still a product of genetic engineering. In synbio, the microorganisms have been modified to produce a specific compound useful in manufacturing or industrial processes, such as proteins, fats, flavors or scents. For example, Impossible Foods uses synbio techniques to make a blood-like substance called "heme," which gives the Impossible burger's GMO soy-based patty its "meatiness" — and even makes it appear juicy and bloody.

Molecular farming is another new GMO technique in which agricultural crops are engineered to produce specific proteins or other compounds they would not naturally produce. For example, U.K.-based Moolec Science has developed a soy plant that produces pork proteins (yes, you read that right). Pork-infused GMO soybeans could boost the protein content in plant-based meat alternatives or make them more convincingly pork-like.

If you eat meat, you eat soy

We've explored the good and not-so-good ways soy shows up in plant-based alternatives, but where does that leave meat-eaters? Surprisingly, carnivores are also indebted to soy. The USDA estimates that 70% of soy ends up in livestock feed. So, even if you get your protein from traditional animal sources, its production still relies heavily on soy. . Whether you enjoy a plant-based diet or eat meat, there's a high likelihood that soy touches your diet. 

Because soy is the most commonly grown commodity crop in North America and 95% of it is GMO, looking for the Butterfly on plant-based or animal-derived products is one of the most impactful ways to avoid GMOs, support sustainable farming practices and influence the supply chain. Let's build a better food system, one burger (or veggie burger) at a time!

The world's oceans, lakes and rivers give us a lot. 

Since the 1960s, we've seen an estimated four-fold increase in seafood harvest and consumption. For those who enjoy eating seafood, preserving precious aquatic resources means being selective about what we consume and how it arrives on our plates. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) offers excellent resources to help support sustainable choices.

Supporting healthy seafood populations can also start on land. Opting for plant-based alternatives to traditional seafood can help reduce pressure on marine ecosystems. 

When it comes to health and sustainability, GMO fish flounders

Did you know that the first GMO animal approved for human consumption was a fish? In 2015, AquaBounty's AquAdvantage GMO salmon was approved for human consumption in the U.S. and Canada. The fast-growing GMO was engineered by inserting DNA from an eel-like ocean pout and a Chinook salmon into an Atlantic salmon. It is raised in inland fish farms on Prince Edward Island and Indiana.

While AquaBounty trumpets its products as an environmentally-friendly way to get healthy, sustainable salmon, several environmental organizations, including the Non-GMO Project, disagree with their statements. Farmed salmon generally provides less nutrition to the eater, and fish farms are notorious polluters and sources of disease. Also, fast-growing GMO salmon could present an existential risk to wild salmon populations in the event of escape. 

So, we know GMO salmon is a non-starter. What if sustainable seafood doesn't come from fish farms at all, it comes from legume farms?

Plant-based and off-the-hook

If you're looking for plant-based alternatives to seafood, a wealth of non-GMO options are available. 

Good Catch combines a variety of legumes to deliver the rich flavors and flaky textures of seafood favorites. They currently offer fish sticks, fillets and crab cakes, and recently added a plant-based salmon burger to their menu. (Check out the Plant-Based Foods Association interview with Good Catch here to learn more about the company).

Konscious Foods is another plant-based brand making a big splash. Founded by industry leader Yves Potvin (of Yves Veggie Cuisine and Gardein), Konscious Foods offers plant-based sushi rolls, onigiri stuffed rice snacks and poké bowls that you can pick up in the frozen foods aisle. Konscious Foods says their whole grain, vegetable, legume and fruit-based products prove that protein alternatives don't need to be highly processed, filled with unnatural ingredients or cost more than their overfished and farmed counterparts. The simplicity, convenience and quality of Konscious Foods options earned an honorable mention from the Plant Based Foods Association Expo recap.

Other brands offer seafood alternatives as part of their more extensive Non-GMO Project Verified plant-based product lines, including fish sticks, fillets and crab cakes from Gardein and OmniFoods.

Responsible seafood production needn't rely on costly corporate biotech "solutions" when simpler, better and more accessible options are already available. Indigenous experts have practiced sustainable wild-caught salmon fishing for millennia, and there are several Non-GMO Project Verified plant-based options for vegetarians, vegans, pescatarians and omnivores alike. 

We need GMOs like a fish needs a bicycle.

While meatless patties have been around for ages, fashioned from mixtures of grains, legumes and vegetables, veggie burgers (as we think of them) are a modern invention. It wasn’t until the 80s and 90s that the "heat-and-eat"-style veggie burgers were sold in natural grocers. The products mainly catered to vegetarians and vegans, and were unlikely to be mistaken for an animal-derived burger.

Today, plant-based isn't just for vegetarians. A new generation of plant-based meat alternatives made for meat eaters has entered the market, with options that even a dedicated burger lover can enjoy without compromise or regret. 

However, some brands are using GMOs to disguise their products' plant-based origins. Let's explore where GMOs show up in plant-based burgers.

Plant-based (and bloody)

The Impossible Burger is probably the most well-known plant-based product trying to replace its animal-derived counterpart. It hit the market in 2016 with much fanfare and a novel attribute: the Impossible Burger contains genetically modified "heme," a blood-like substance created through synthetic biology that makes it meatier and bloodier. A few years later, Motif Foodworks released "Hemami," a different type of synbio heme that provides "umami flavor and meaty aroma to burgers, sausages, chicken, and other plant-based meat alternatives." 

Motif Foodworks and Impossible Foods both use synthetic biology, or synbio, to make their signature ingredients. Synbio generally uses genetically modified microorganisms such as yeasts or algae to produce novel compounds. Biotech companies increasingly use synthetic biology to create various synthetic flavors, colors, fats, proteins, and more. 

The Impossible Burger is currently unavailable in the U.K. and E.U. because synbio heme has not been approved for human consumption, though Impossible products without synbio heme are available. However, it's important to note that products containing synbio ingredients may enter the U.S. market unlabeled and unregulated, lost to the regulatory blindspot that fails to recognize new GMO techniques. 

Traditional GMOs in plant-based proteins

Commodity crops such as soy and corn also show up in plant-based alternatives. Legumes are a staple of alternative proteins and corn is processed into countless additives. However, the Non-GMO Project considers both crops at high risk of being GMOs. The farming system behind GMO crops can compromise the perceived environmental benefits of plant-based choices.

For example, the Impossible Burger uses GMO soy as a main ingredient in the meatless patty (to which the synbio "heme" mentioned above adds meatiness). Most GMO soy is engineered to produce an insecticide or tolerate multiple herbicide applications — traits that ultimately encourage pesticide-resistant superweeds and superbugs and the use of more toxic chemicals to control them.

Herbicide-tolerant GMO soy's collateral damage is well-documented. In 2017, many soybean farmers in the midwest reached for dicamba to manage superweeds that could withstand numerous glyphosate applications (glyphosate is the weedkiller most often paired with GMOs). However, dicamba is an infamously volatile weedkiller, and millions of acres of crops were destroyed by dicamba "drift" that summer. Concern for the planet motivates more eaters than ever before; this is almost certainly not the impact they had in mind when they reached for a plant-based patty.

Non-GMO options

Thankfully, the world of plant-based products is growing fast, offering a wealth of excellent non-GMO plant-based options to choose from. If you're like most shoppers and try to avoid GMOs as much as possible, check out our online product search tool. You'll find over 900 plant-based products, including meat analogs, plant-based seafood, eggs and poultry, and more.

In the coming weeks, we'll expand our Non-GMO Project Verified plant-based highlights from salmon burgers to sausage patties. Stay tuned!

Cultivated meat is big business. Since 2013, investors have provided more than $3.1 billion in funding to the emerging industry. In 2023, the USDA permitted two companies to produce and sell cultivated chicken, making the US the second country in the world to approve cultivated meat products.

Cultivated meat is lab-grown meat grown from animal cells rather than on a live animal (yes, this is possible). It can be grown from chicken cells, cow cells, pig cells, and so on. While cultivated meat is considered part of the alternative protein movement, it's more of an alternative to traditional livestock farming than a plant-based product. It is, after all, meat.

Transforming traditional livestock farming is critical work. The profoundly flawed industrial system is rife with animal rights abuses, dangerous labor conditions and staggering environmental impacts. For our own wellbeing and for the planet, something has to change. How does cultivated meat measure up as a potential solution? 

At this point, it's tough to tell.

Transparency = trust

So far, practical and economic limitations have impacted cultivated meat's potential as a replacement for livestock farming (more on that in a moment), and some companies are turning to GMOs for possible workarounds. 

Part of the trouble is how mammalian tissue behaves, says the cofounder of the Dutch biotech company, Meatable. "If you take a cell from animal muscle, it has all kinds of behaviors that don’t have anything to do with how it tastes, but which make it really expensive and complicated to grow." Genetic engineering and synthetic biology might be the fastest reliable ways to solve those problems. 

Due to intense competition within the cultivated meat industry, production methods are generally closely held corporate secrets. The Non-GMO Project's dedicated research team has been monitoring the progress of several cultivated meat products destined for the commercial market, looking for signs that genetic engineering is part of the process. Here's what we've found: Upside Foods, one of the two companies that received USDA approval, has filed several patents related to genetic engineering and the production of lab-grown meat. SciFi Foods, another developer of cultivated beef, has discussed how CRISPR gene editing allowed them to reduce production costs 1,000-fold. 

Future consumers of cultivated meat have the right to decide whether or not to eat products made with GMOs. Consumer trust is crucial to success — and irreplaceable if squandered. If cultivated meat is to achieve widespread consumer acceptance, brands using genetic engineering must offer transparency to the general public. 

That is, if we can iron out the practical, economic and environmental wrinkles.

In search of a smaller carbon footprint

Industrial-style livestock farming is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for an estimated 60% of the food system's carbon footprint. As climate scientists consistently point out, big contributors are also big opportunities for improvement. But, is cultivated meat a climate solution?

Early studies indicate that cultivated meat might be too energy-intensive to move the needle on climate change. A 2023 paper, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, estimated that cultivated meat's environmental impact could be much worse than conventionally-produced beef.

With the exact processes used to make cultivated meat still shrouded in secrecy, a full and reliable life-cycle accounting is tough to come by.

"But, will it scale?"

If lab-grown meat could be produced more energy-efficiently (a big "if"), it would still have to be dramatically scaled up and widely adopted to help with GHG emissions. Meat-eaters would need to consistently opt for cultivated meat products instead of traditionally produced meat. However, the price of cultivated meat likely places it out of reach for many shoppers. 

One analysis landed on $17/lb as a possible low-end production cost, which would then be marked up along the supply chain. “A $17 pound of ground cultivated meat at the factory quickly becomes $40 at the grocery store — or a $100 quarter-pounder at a restaurant,” reported The Counter.

The issue could be moot. Dr. Dave Humbird, the author of that $17/lb hypothesis, has since concluded that cultivated meat faces intractable challenges at scale. "None of this stuff makes any commercial sense until everyone’s eating it," he says. "Even the biggest advocates of the technology are not talking about [cultivated meat making a dent in the market by] 2030 anymore.” (The UN International Panel on Climate Change has cited 2030 as a line in the sand for climate action because failure to meet GHG emission reduction targets before that time could irreversibly alter the planet).

It's important to consider that conventionally produced meat comes with its own set of externalized costs. Between taxpayer-funded industry subsidies, the exploitation of workers and animals and widespread environmental degradation, the price we see at the grocery store is artificially low.

Cultivated + plant-based

With the promise of a cultivated meat revolution seeming increasingly unlikely, alternative protein producers have begun to embrace technology mash-ups as a potential solution. Cultivated meat could be one ingredient in a primarily plant-based product, offering that extra bit of authenticity while addressing the scale issues of pure cultivated products.

However, not all plant-based products are created equally. Genetically modified ingredients, including GMO soy and the bloodlike synbio "heme" used in Impossible Burgers, are barriers to adoption by natural shoppers who prefer to avoid GMOs.

Should these collaborations move forward, we urge brands to build trust with their customers by offering a complete and transparent accounting of how products are produced. Any viable replacement for traditional livestock farming must live up to its environmental promise. A commitment from plant-based and cultivated meat producers to be explicit about their methods, help solve the climate crisis and go non-GMO would make dedicated followers of legions of natural shoppers. Full transparency could be their victory lap.

Zucchini season is here! 

By August, many home gardens overflow with delicate summer squash. The annual surplus of zucchini and yellow summer squash can be shared, grilled, kabob-ed, sauteed or shredded by friends and neighbors alike. 

Part of the beauty of home-grown squash is you don't have to worry about whether the fruits of your labor are GMOs. The two varieties of GMO summer squash currently on the market are only accessible by commercial growers in the United States. (GMO squash is approved for import and consumption in Canada, but not for cultivation). 

Genetically modified zucchini and yellow summer squash have been on the market since the 1990s. GMO squash is grown on roughly 2,500 acres in the U.S.  — that's about ten small family farms worth. While it may not seem like much, that acreage and market availability is sufficient to place summer squash on the Non-GMO Project's High-Risk List. That means products containing zucchini or yellow summer squash are subject to extra scrutiny during the verification process to ensure they come from non-GMO sources. You can find out more about risk status here.

Some resistance to some disease

Most GMOs are engineered to tolerate an herbicide or produce an insecticide, but not squash. GMO zucchini and yellow summer squash are engineered for resistance to certain plant diseases including zucchini yellow mosaic virus and watermelon mosaic virus which cause infected plants to grow small, unhealthy fruit.

However, modification mitigates the impact of the diseases, but it does not provide immunity. Plants may still become infected and show symptoms, and summer squash remains vulnerable to several other types of viruses. The limited efficacy could explain why GMO squash aren't more widely adopted.

While GMO summer squash's impact on farmland is modest, its impact in the regulatory space is anything but.

Risky business (as usual)

Genetically modified summer squash was one of the earliest GMO crops to be deregulated, and, according to the New York Times, "the first to raise the possibility of significant ecological threats." 

GMO squash entered the market early in the GMO experiment. It was 1995 — just three years after the Flavr Savr tomato. During the 90s, the emerging agricultural biotech industry essentially designed their own regulations. "U.S. government agencies [did] exactly what big agribusiness asked them to do and told them to do," explained one FDA official at the time. 

Why are we worried? The timing made GMO squash a regulatory test case. Squash is a promiscuous crop with wild, weedy relatives. Genetically modified disease resistance could turn those weedy relatives into unstoppable superweeds if they were contaminated with engineered DNA. Ecologists at the time voiced concerns that a lack of scientific and regulatory rigor could eventually lead to environmental disaster — if not because of GMO squash crops, then because of the pathway created for their speedy deregulation.

The legacy of GMO squash allows the biotech industry to design its own regulatory safeguards while it undervalues the expertise of ecologists and environmental experts. Meanwhile, biotechnology continues to evolve, incorporating new and experimental techniques that give rise to DNA sequences that have never before existed on this planet, and government agencies continue to remove regulatory safeguards for GMOs.

So plant on, friends! May your home garden abound with non-GMO zucchini and summer squash. It might just be a different kind of green revolution.   

National Honey Bee Day is Saturday, August 19!

The past decade has seen sharp declines in many bee populations around the globe. For those of us living in urban centers, this may seem like a distant concern. However, bees are indispensable allies in our food system, responsible for about a third of what we eat every day. To celebrate National Honey Bee Day, let’s take a closer look at these amazing creatures.

All hail the Queen!

Honey bees producing non-GMO Project Verified honey

Honey bees working together to produce honey

Honey bees live in highly social and cooperative colonies with workloads strictly divided between the inhabitants. That’s an organized workforce of tens of thousands of creatures, all doing their job to help sustain the colony. This industriousness and organization inspire some familiar phrases, such as “drones,” “queen bee” and “busy as a bee.” What are we really saying when we use bee metaphors?

Happy Honey Bee Day! Dance like bees are watching.

While each bee has a job, no single bee could survive on its own without the support of the colony. This cooperative system means that the entire colony functions as a superorganism, as though it was actually a single animal. The worker bees fan their wings to ventilate the hive, which then inhales and exhales about the same volume of air as a housecat. A colony that grows too big and crowded divides itself into two in an elaborate process known as swarming. Natural selection occurs on the level of the colony, not on the individual bee. Bees are so interconnected; it’s no wonder their hives are so sensitive to human interference.

This level of organization isn’t achieved by instinct or hormones alone. Honeybees have remarkable powers of communication. They give each other directions to the best feeding spots by performing a “waggle dance,” accurately describing the direction and distance of pollen sources miles from the hive. In one of science’s cuter discoveries, honey bees also make a “whoop, whoop!” noise when they are startled. 

A very long arrangement

Given how important bees are to the human food supply, it’s not surprising that our interest in them coincides with the rise of agriculture roughly 12,000 years ago. Bees pollinated ancient crops and people harvested their honey as a valuable sweetener and used beeswax for many household purposes. Honey bees held prominent places in the mythology of many of the ancient civilizations; mythology from the Greeks, Egyptians, Central and South Africans and aboriginal Australians all honors the honey bee. A common theme across many of these cultures was that bees were messengers between our world and the spirit realm.

Bees are as integral to our food supply now as they were all those millennia ago. They are directly responsible for a third of the food we consume. Bees improve the appearance and taste of crops, and research shows they also help increase the amount that can be grown at a given time, improving yields by up to 71%.

The decline

Bees around the globe are in deep trouble. Populations have been in decline for decades, with a phenomenon known as “colony collapse disorder” (pretty much what it sounds like) appearing in North America in 2006. While there are likely many contributing factors to the decline, there is one common denominator: humans. 

Humans have a tendency to move creatures beyond their natural range, introducing them to new continents and new diseases. We destroy valuable habitat to house our vast numbers. In the past century, the rise of industrial agriculture has been devastating for insect populations including honey bees. The practice of monocropping — planting a single crop on hundreds of acres of farmland — creates a food desert for pollinators outside of the brief window of springtime blossoms. 

Chemical pesticides also wreak havoc on bees’ health, either by outright killing them or by making them just sick enough to fall to another threat. Even our home gardens can be inhospitable to bees. Pristine landscapes and flowerless lawns offer little food or protection to pollinators, and the chemicals we use around our property can be just as harmful to insects as their agricultural counterparts. 

In a tragic twist of irony, scientists in Germany are currently at work on a genetically modified superbee. The introduction of a GMO bee could be the nail in the coffin for natural populations, with consequences reaching into our own food supply. It’s taken 80 million years for the modern bee to evolve into the creatures we see today. With its complex social structure and ingenious communication methods, the bee is one of the most fascinating creatures on the planet.

Get busy like a bee

But it’s not over yet! There are many ways we can all help the precious honey bee. We can reject chemical-laden food crops, opting instead for organic and non-GMO choices. We can support local, small-scale farmers operating organic, transitional or regenerative systems. We can keep pesticides out of our yards, and leave some dedicated wild spaces in the garden, piled with branches and leaves so wild bees can survive the winter. And we can plant a vibrant mixture of flowers so they’ll have something to eat when they emerge. 

Any (or all!) of these actions is a step in the right direction.

On July 12, the U.N. released its annual global food security and nutrition report. 

It paints a grim picture. 

During the last four years, the number of people living with food insecurity and hunger has increased by 122 million. Today, 2.4 billion people lack consistent access to sufficient, nutritious, safe food. 

The U.N. report encapsulates our greatest ambitions — to feed everyone on the planet, now and in the years to come. It also highlights an unmistakable truth: What we are currently doing doesn't work. 

A popular narrative is that growing more food with fewer resources will solve global hunger and that biotechnology is a crucial tool. This is wrong on two counts. First, global hunger is not a production issue. We already produce more than enough food for everyone on the planet. Equally as important, the GMOs that dominate North American farming have not meaningfully increased yields or reduced hunger despite 30 years of industry self-aggrandizement.

The world produces more food, and more GMOs, than ever before. Still, millions are slipping into food insecurity. 

Clearly, GMOs come up short in the fight against global hunger.

GMOs don't increase yields

A 2009 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) explored how well GMOs were performing against biotech promises. With 15 years of data to draw from, researchers found that "genetic engineering has actually done very little to increase the yields of food and feed crops" despite proponents' claims to the contrary. 

To be clear, crop yields did increase during this time, but gains were mainly due to traditional cross-breeding and other agricultural practices, not genetic engineering.The negligible benefit due to GMOs (an estimated 4% yield increase) is a paltry reward when measured against the downsides of increased herbicide application, superweeds and superbugs and reduced biodiversity.

Recent scholarship supports the UCS's findings, as well as a 2016 New York Times analysis of biotechnology's performance in agriculture. According to the Times, "Yield is still driven by breeding plants to bring out desirable traits, as it has been for thousands of years." 

GMOs don't feed the world

An in-depth report by the non-profit ETC. Group distinguishes two opposing food production systems. A near-monopoly of agrichemical corporations controls the industrial food chain, and the peasant food web consists of regional networks of small-scale producers. 

While the industrial food chain utilizes its considerable might to shape policy decisions, it is a wildly inefficient production method. Industrial food production prioritizes well-traveled commodity crops, export markets, highly-processed foods and GMOs. It gobbles up the bulk of agriculture's natural resources while providing food to less than a third of the world's population.

Meanwhile, around 70% of people get their food outside the industrial system — and without GMOs. The peasant food web uses far less land, water and fuel than its industrialized counterpart while strengthening social systems. The peasant food web is most easily identifiable in the global south, where family- or women-led operations include farmers, livestock-keepers, pastoralists, hunters, gatherers, fishers and urban and peri-urban producers. However, it is also at work in the north. Food and seed exchanges, farmers' markets, urban farms and CSAs are all examples of the peasant food web at work. 

GMOs don't address hunger's root causes

If production issues don't drive hunger, then what does? Diet-related diseases stem from a complex interplay of conflict, income inequality, global trade agreements and natural disasters. GMOs don't solve any of these issues — and can even exacerbate some of them.

Let's look at income inequality as one example. GMOs overwhelmingly benefit the corporations that make, patent and sell them. As such, their use exacerbates income inequality by transferring wealth to those who hold plenty of it already. The same corporations lobby governments to enact pro-biotech policies, including subsidies for specific crops or production methods. Farmers who follow establishment logic and buy patented GMO seeds must continue to purchase new seeds each year, as well as the accompanying costly fertilizers and pesticides. Adopting the treadmill of GMO production can push farmers into debt and erode social systems that depend on local trade and resource sharing.

Another example is the climate crisis. While growing food on a warming planet is top of mind for most farmers and many consumers, GMOs are a poor tool for increasingly common drought events. 

"Drought is a complex challenge that doesn’t lend itself to single gene solutions," says GM Watch. No two droughts are the same. The severity and timing of a drought will determine its impact, and soil quality can make — or break — a plant's response. Furthermore, a crop's drought response involves many genes working together, whereas gene editing manipulates a couple of genes at a time. "These complications make it unlikely that any single approach or gene used to make a GM crop will be useful in all, or even most, types of drought."

If GMOs don't help feed the world, increase yield or address the climate crisis, then what are they good for? Amassing wealth. GMOs make tremendous amounts of money for the corporations that develop them. 

In North America, we are 30 years into an experiment that was sold to us on the promise of a brighter future that has yet to begin. 

The height of summer is the perfect time for a cold treat! However, dairy ice cream can be tricky for people who are trying to avoid GMOs because most of the genetically modified corn, soy and cotton seed grown in the United States ends up in livestock feed. 

Biotech companies are trying to fill that niche by using synthetic, GMO non-animal dairy proteins as ingredients in high-tech ice cream alternatives. Thankfully, you don't need to use GMOs to get delicious non-dairy ice cream. We held a taste test to prove it.

The Non-GMO Project team recently gathered in our Bellingham, Washington office for a staff meeting and ice cream buffet. We sampled a selection of non-GMO, plant-based frozen treats so we could share our favorites with you. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it. 

We included one regional brand with limited availability and a couple of awesome options you can likely find in your area, wherever you may be. Also, though we refer to the treats as ice cream for simplicity's sake, they are all plant-based and 100% vegan, with no dairy ingredients that might upset your stomach.

Grab a spoon.

The regional favorite: Frankie and Jo's 

Frankie and Jo's is a Pacific Northwest specialty, currently available at select retailers in the Seattle area, the Bay area and online.

Frankie and Jo's makes ice cream from gum-free coconut milk and oat milk. They offer ten "everyday" flavors (ice cream every day, you say? Yes, please!) plus three seasonal flavors each month. 

We tried three flavors and we'd recommend any or all of them. We also hear wonderful things about Beet Strawberry Rose … maybe next time!

If you have the chance to try this ice cream, do not pass it up! If you live out of state, order some, or plan an ice-cream themed trip to Seattle or the Bay area.

For oat lovers: Oatly

Oatly products are available all over the U.S. and Canada — check out the Oatfinder for retailers in your area. This is one of the growing brands helping to elevate the humble oat's profile on agricultural land. Civil Eats recently reported on the benefits of farmers growing more oats, such as improved soil health and reduced fossil fuel consumption (in case you need incentives to eat more ice cream).

The first (and last) word in uncompromising creaminess: Cosmic Bliss

Cosmic Bliss won a loyal following back when it was called Coconut Bliss, offering exclusively coconut-milk-based and unbelievably rich non-dairy options. It was the go-to for vegan ice cream, a dessert you could enjoy without feeling like you were compromising. The company's rebranding as Cosmic Bliss reflects their growth and support for dairy-done-right. Cosmic Bliss now includes natural dairy options from grass-fed, regeneratively managed dairy herds. 

However, in keeping with our plant-based theme, we chose one of their vegan, coconut-milk options, and we have no regrets.

We believe everyone has the right to eat delicious ice cream, whether they are vegans, lactose-intolerant or avoiding GMOs. We also believe that staff meetings are much better when combined with an ice cream tasting, and encourage workplaces around the globe to consider adopting the practice. 

May your scoops be generous and your waffle cones plentiful!

To celebrate National Dairy Month, we are highlighting some of the world's most innovative, Non-GMO Project Verified dairy producers. These dairy operations offer regenerative and regionally-specific solutions to the most significant issues facing the dairy industry (e.g., animal welfare, soil health and climate change) — all without GMOs! 

What the rest of the world calls "regenerative dairy," New Zealand dairy farmers call business as usual. 

That's because New Zealand has the highest standards in the world for dairy production. For each kilogram of dairy produced, greenhouse gas emissions are half that of global averages — and dairy farmers continue to look for ways to improve.  

Already a world leader, what would improvement look like? How do you improve on farmland that was in frankly excellent shape? For answers, we look to New Zealand's Lewis Road.

Lewis Road Creamery is committed to continuous improvement, to leaving the land better than they found it.

From regeneration to "fixation"

New Zealand's greenest farming might look slightly different than North America's. No GMO crops are commercially grown there, and the unique geography and established stewardship practices mean that their farmland is some of the richest on the planet. Agriculture focuses less on regeneration, which implies repairing degraded land, and more on carbon fixing, which means putting greenhouse gasses back into the soil where they belong.

Carbon fixation is a natural function of plant life through photosynthesis. New Zealand's geography favors native plants such as plantain grass for this purpose. However, the healthiest soil doesn't rely on plantain grass alone. Encouraging diverse plant life pulls down more carbon and makes the land more resilient to pests and climate changes.

Diversity in animal life pays off, too, and many farms practice beekeeping or monitor fish and bird populations. As part of the Southern Pastures group, Lewis Road Creamery looks to natural allies such as earthworms and dung beetles to the land to cycle nutrients and to keep nitrogen from leaching into waterways.

Lewis Road's Lynette Maan joined our recent seminar to describe how the interconnectedness of the natural world can support human health. "The more 'poop that stays in the loop,' the healthier the soil microbiome," she says, which leads to better health at both ends of the nutrient chain. A diverse microbiome keeps the soil healthier, just like a diverse gut flora (our microbiome) supports human health. When humans eat food from such a healthy, biodiverse system, says Maan, they benefit, too.

Animal welfare

We've already seen that Lewis Road farms support a diverse range of small animal life, from beneficial insects to birds, but what about the stars of the show: dairy cows? Lewis Road's animal welfare practices start with the belief that cows are sentient beings and deserve humane treatment. There's also a strong business case for respecting animal rights: Happy cows produce more — and better —milk. 

And Lewis Road cows are undoubtedly happy. Their lives are governed by the Five Freedoms, a dairy cow bill of rights that guides how they are managed on the farm.

The Five Freedoms include:

  1. The freedom to move around. Cows are not confined, and certainly not kept in concentrated animal lots as might be found in industrial-style dairy. Cows are free to wander on pastures every day. They have access to shelter for protection from the elements, but structures are not used as confinement.
  2. Freedom to engage in natural behaviors. Natural behavior is an essential part of animal welfare. Cows must do cow things, such as foraging and exploring, grooming themselves and each other, and playing.
  3. Freedom from hunger. Lewis Road cows have access to pasture for grazing 365 days a year. They are provided with supplemental non-GMO feed as needed (e.g. if the weather conditions make pastures inaccessible.) The feed meets the Non-GMO Project Standard's requirements, and, additionally, doesn't contain corn, soy or palm materials. 
  4. Freedom from thirst. Of course, the cows always have access to clean drinking water.
  5. Freedom from pain and fear. The fifth freedom is a particular favorite of ours here at the Non-GMO Project because of how directly it speaks to the cows' quality of life. 

Let's look at that fifth freedom more closely. After all, the life of a cow whose care is guided by preventing suffering is wildly different from one whose purpose is to produce the most milk. For example, industrial dairy operations in North America frequently house animals in dirty, crowded and stressful conditions — the kind of environment that promotes disease and injury. They treat entire herds with antibiotics as a matter of course. 

The team at Lewis Road takes a holistic and humane view of their animals' health. For example, well-maintained fences, gates and equipment can minimize injuries to the cows. Prioritizing healthy feed and natural behaviors supports overall well-being. In the holistic view, prevention comes from a safer, healthier environment rather than over-administering antibiotics to treat the effects of poor conditions. Medications are used, but sparingly, and prescribed as needed for the individual animal.

Lewis Road Creamery starts with extraordinary care for the creatures and land it touches — and then looks for opportunities to improve. The result is not only superlative products but also ideal animal welfare and rich, healthy farmland that provides nourishing food for generations.

That's good business.

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