Dive Brief:
- The Grocery Manufacturers Association released the names of companies that contributed to a $17.1million fund aimed at defeating I-522, proposed legislation in Washington State to require labeling of GMO foods.
- The move comes days after the state's attorney general filed a lawsuit against GMA, alleging the trade association had violated state campaign laws.
- Pepsi was the biggest donor to stop the law, the GMA said, contributing $1.6 million. Coke and Nestle were the next biggest donors.
- The list of donors is a who's-who of American food manufacturers and includes General Mills, Kellogg, Land O' Lakes, Campbell's Soup, Bimbo Bakeries and more.
Dive Insight:
We said last week that GMA's efforts to hide the names of donor companies was a bad idea, noting what to us seems to be just common sense: "In an election battle about transparency, being secretive is not smart." Furthermore, our suspicion is that the anti-GMO-labeling fight has already been lost, not just in Washington, but across the nation. Lobbying against labels can be nothing more than a delaying tactic. And it's a tactic where the public-relations risks are quite high.
That may explain some of the more interesting bits of information to come out of GMA's donor list. It turns out that only 34 of the association's more than 300 members gave money to the secret fund. And that two of the biggest donors to a similar effort in California last year—Unilever and Mars—did not contribute to efforts in Washington.
Even more interesting is that after the lawsuit was filed and the GMA released its donor list, Mars issued a statement to the New Tribune saying that from now on the company "will neither oppose nor fund opposition of GMO labeling proposals at the state or federal levels, where those initiatives seek only to inform consumers of whether a product contains GMOs—this specifically includes Washington State ballot measure I 552."
It seems to us that Mars has come back down to earth on this issue. We expect other food companies will do the same.
