Clover Stornetta Farms to make all its dairy products free of GMOs

[Sara S]

Clover Stornetta Farms to make all its conventional milk products non GMO
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/6110013-181/clover-stornetta-farms-to-make?artslide=0

ROBERT DIGITALE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | September 20, 2016

In the first quarter of 2017, the Bay Area’s largest dairy processor will sell a new product, “Non-GMO Project Verified” conventional milk, President/CEO Marcus Benedetti said Tuesday.

Clover will start its transition with all conventional milk sold in half-gallon cartons, including the various weights from nonfat to whole milk. Over the next two years the company will switch all its other liquid milk products, like half-and-half and buttermilk, to non-GMO production, with a goal of eventually adding ice cream and other food products. GMOs appear in dairy products through livestock feed.

Clover’s plan is unusual and possibly unique among the nation’s larger dairy processors.

Benedetti said Clover would be the first dairy processor in the state to sell conventional GMO-free milk and “the first of any scale anywhere” to do so.

The Non-GMO Project, the Bellingham, Wash., nonprofit that will verify Clover’s products, said it doesn’t comment on who is first to make various GMO-free products.

The company will continue to produce its lines of organic milk products as well, which under federal rules are and must be GMO free. But the new initiative will allow consumers a non-GMO option that is cheaper than typical organic products.

While acknowledging sharp differences of opinion both locally and nationally over GMOs, Benedetti said their inclusion in milk products has raised uncertainty and anxiety on the part of consumers. Removing the GMOs removes the uncertainty.

“Right now we’re hearing loud and clear they want a choice,” Benedetti said of shoppers. “They want an alternative.”

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