Organic Consumers Association

The company (Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc.) that makes the apple wants you to believe that consumer demand was behind the invention.

But the real target customers for GMO apples are fast-food restaurants and food service businesses—companies that want mothers of young children to think they’re selling healthy fresh fruit, even if that fruit is a genetically engineered apple that has undergone no meaningful safety testing for human consumption.

It’s up to consumers to make sure the main customers for Okanagan’s frankenapple—fast-food restaurants who want to serve the apple in kids’ meals and salad bars—know that consumers don’t want ‘em, and won’t buy ‘em.

TAKE ACTION: Tell McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts and Subway to Publicly Commit to not Sell GMO Apples

There’s ample science—including a new study by Center for Food Safety—linking Monsanto’s Roundup to the collapse of the world’s monarch butterfly population. Why? Because Roundup kills the milkweed plant, which is essential to the monarch’s survival.
 
In order to protect the monarch’s habitat, and save the monarch, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) is considering a petition, submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety, seeking protection for the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act the Monarch on the Endangered Species List.
 
Until we successfully ban Roundup for good, placing the Monarch on the Endangered Species List is our best hope for saving America’s favorite butterfly from extinction.
 
DEADLINE MARCH 2: TAKE ACTION: Ask the Fish & Wildlife Service to Put the Monarch Butterfly on the Endangered Species List. Save the Monarch from Monsanto!

On Friday, February 13, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the first genetically engineered apple, despite hundreds of thousands of petitions asking the USDA to reject it.

According an article in Politico, the USDA said the GMO apple “doesn’t pose any harm to other plants or pests.”

Great. But what about potential harm to the humans who consume them?

The Arctic Apple (Golden Delicious and Granny varieties), developed by Canada-based Okanagan Specialty Fruit, shockingly doesn’t require approval by the U.S. Food & Drug Association (FDA). The FDA will merely conduct a “voluntary review” before, presumably, rubber-stamping the apple for use in restaurants, institutions (including schools and hospitals) and grocery stores—with no long- (or even short-) term safety testing for its potential impact on human health.

Here’s why that should concern every consumer out there, especially parents of young children.