Dozens of California businesses and organizations including some of the nation's top organic and sustainable food companies Wednesday launched the Genetic Engineering Policy Alliance to push for laws protecting the state's agriculture from the threat of genetic engineering (GE).

GEPA members such as Whole Foods Markets, United Natural Foods, Inc. and Bon Appétit Management Company, released the group's platform calling for state policies to minimize the danger of contamination and compensate farmers who are harmed.

"GE contamination is a real threat to the integrity of our food supply," said Michael Funk, chief executive officer of United Natural Foods, the nation's largest natural and organic foods distributor. "Once contamination occurs, there's no turning back. [GEPA] is an important force for change that will push for policies to protect public health, farmers, and the food industry."

Specifically, the group is demanding public notice of all plantings of GE crops in California, labeling of all food that contains GE ingredients, liability protection for farmers whose crops are unintentionally contaminated, and a ban on the planting of industrial and pharmaceutical crops.

GEPA said it represents over two million individuals from agriculture, consumer, health, faith, labor, environmental, social justice and business sectors.

The group said it formed in reaction to the steadily increasing number of GE contamination incidents around the country. Most notably, the Department of Agriculture's announcement in August that the U.S. food supply had been contaminated by an unapproved variety of GE rice developed by Bayer CropScience.

The group said California lacks state laws pertaining to genetic engineering in agriculture. At the federal level, regulators do not require human health or environmental safety testing of new GE crops.

Worse, the group said, was no legal recourse to remedy potentially devastating economic and environmental impacts that GE contamination may cause.

"I built a business dedicated to socially responsible food purchasing," said Fedele Bauccio, Bon Appetit Management Company's chief executive officer. "I demand that the integrity of the American food supply be restored with laws protecting farmers and consumers from food that is GE contaminated."

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