Safeway shareholders will urge the company to label store brand products that contain genetically modified organisms.
Green Century Capital Management filed a shareholder proposal with Safeway, citing public demand for GMO labeling as a reason for Safeway to voluntarily provide this information. At Safeway’s annual meeting today consumer advocacy group US Public Interest Research Group (U.S.PIRG) will be presenting a petition signed by more than 130,000 consumers that calls on the company to label GMOs.
U.S. PIRG has pushed Safeway and other grocers to follow the lead of Whole Foods, which committed to labeling GMOs in all in-store products by 2018.
Over the past year, bills or ballot initiatives that would require companies to label foods that contain GMOs have been introduced in more than 20 states, and recently approved in Connecticut, Maine and Vermont. A November ballot measure on labeling will be decided in Oregon by voters.
Companies that include Whole Foods, Chipotle and Ben & Jerry’s have adopted policies to voluntarily disclose the presence of GMOs in products.
Ben & Jerry’s, Stonyfield Farms Annie’s and some 200 other food companies, organic farming and environmental groups have signed a letter to President Obama urging mandatory labeling laws for genetically engineered foods.