The Natural Products Expo Is a Trojan Horse of Genetically Engineered Synbio Frankenfoods

Farmerless “food” and cashless, workerless grocery stores are here. 

How long before companies like Amazon start pulling the plug on retail and agriculture altogether?

That’s what was on my mind as I toured the 2023 Natural Products Expo in Philadelphia, the trade show that has shaped the selection of organic and natural offerings at stores across the U.S. since 1981.

There is an enemy hiding within the Natural Products Expo, but before I describe it to you, I want you to know what you need to do to protect yourself. 

It used to be that most of the new synbio GMOs were conspicuously featured in the dairy-free, alt-protein and fake meat sections, easily avoided by anyone wanting to opt for real farms not fake foods. Increasingly, synbio ingredients like fake “whey” are stealthily snuck into protein powders and the like with big front-label claims highlighting different “grass-fed” or “regenerative” ingredients. Buying foods labeled USDA Organic, “made with organic” or Non-GMO Project Verified is the only way to avoid them.

Even better, buy your food in cash, directly from local farmers.

Okay, now that you know what to do, back to our enemies…

They are the corporate billionaires who plan to become even richer and more powerful by profiting from the end of food and farming and the beginning of a Solynt Green era where we have no choice but to eat whatever genetically engineered synthetic Frankenfoods they feel like feeding us.

They are hiding inside a magnificent but hollow horse: the Natural Products Expo. 

Snuck into the Expo, under the cover of all the regenerative organic health foods we expect to see there, are genetically modified organisms (GMOs), proteins made from synthetic biology, and lab-grown meats, what the industry calls “molecular farming,” “precision fermentation” and “cultured meat.”

It’s just a few products now, but like the Greeks of Virgil’s ancient tale, once they have penetrated the walls of our organic and natural Troy, they will unlock its doors to let their armies in and burn organic and natural to the ground.

They have a plan and they’ve written it down for all to see:

The current food system “will be replaced with a ‘Food-as-Software’ model, where foods are engineered by scientists at a molecular level and uploaded to databases that can be accessed by food designers anywhere in the world.”

Should we be worried? How risky are synthetic biology techniques?

Ken Roseboro answered the question in the Organic & Non-GMO Report:

“Potentially very risky, according to the SEC filing of Ginkgo Bioworks, a major synbio player that launched Expo exhibitor Motif FoodWorks: ‘The genetically engineered organisms and materials that we develop may have significantly altered characteristics compared to those found in the wild, and the full effects of deployment or release of our genetically engineered organisms and materials into uncontrolled environments may be unknown… Such deployment or release… could impact the environment or community generally or the health and safety of our employees, our customers’ employees, and the consumers of our customers’ products.’

“There are not just theoretical risks; a real-life example has already shown how dangerous this technology can be. In the late 1980s, Japanese company Showa Denko used ‘precision fermentation’ to genetically engineer bacteria to produce the supplement tryptophan. But the synthetic biology process also created toxic compounds that caused eosinophilia myalgia syndrome, a deadly disease that killed 60 people and disabled hundreds more.

“The term ‘precision fermentation,’ which sounds like the creation of some biotech industry PR firm, is an attempt to obfuscate a risky technology. Synbio companies obviously want to steer clear of any reference to ‘GMO’ or ‘genetic engineering.’ But there is nothing precise about genetic engineering, whether the ‘older’ shot-in-the-dark transgenic technology or the new GMO 2.0 synbio and gene editing techniques. An article published last year in Nature described that gene editing of human embryonic cells caused ‘chromosomal mayhem.’ That is not precision.”

Industry advocates pushing animal-free “food” side-step these inconvenient truths and focus on the presumed environmental benefits of replacing factory farms with biotech factories.

Is that our only option? Errol Schweizer, a former Whole Foods Market Vice President who kept its grocery aisles largely GMO-free during his 7-year tenure, let it be known in a Forbes article that he didn’t think so:

“The life cycle research around precision fermentation shows extremely favorable positioning against CAFO systems that exacerbate climate change. But these studies should also consider the growing category of humanely raised, carbon neutral, Biodynamic and Regenerative Organic dairy products. Nor do they compare to the burgeoning sector of agroecologically produced foods that produce impressive yields, integrate humanely raised livestock, demand land reform and require greater social equity.

Read on for the answers to these questions and more:

“Agroecology is a rights-based process that can’t be flipped to a strategic buyer. Such projects are usually under resourced but scalable and replicable. Many are cooperatively owned and managed and rooted in Black, Indigenous and non-settler colonialist worldviews. Some have been skeptical about recombinant food technologies and genetic enclosures. A few of the more well known examples include members of HEAL Food Alliance, as well as Soul Fire Farm, Sicangu Food Sovereignty Initiative, Virginia Free Farm, Regeneration Farms, Tierre y Libertad Farm, and New Roots Cooperative Farm.

“And agroecological projects are backed up over 40 years of field research documenting high yields, nutrient density, shared wealth creation, lower agrichemical use, more humane production and processing, and biodiverse soils that sequester carbon and reduce flooding and runoff. Isn’t that worth attention and investment?”

The Natural Products Expo is unable to respond to Schweizer’s thoughtful perspective, because it has become a slave to the get-rich-quick dreams of hot new brands hoping to sell-out to a big, evil, multinational corporation rather than the health, nutritional or environmental goals of the larger organic and natural movement.

This sell-out mindset is why the Natural Products Expo has been ignoring risks, naively promoting unproven projections of potential environmental benefits and even parroting the specious claim taken straight from the Monsanto playbook that genetic engineering and synthetic biology are the only way to feed the world.

In 2019, the Natural Products Expo allowed Impossible Foods to exhibit its GMO “bleeding” vegan burger made with synthetic heme from genetically engineered yeast, as well as Monsanto’s Roundup Ready glyphosate-tolerant soybeans.

Impossible Foods exhibiting at the Natural Products Expo was “like inviting in an arms manufacturer to exhibit at a peace convention.” That’s how Jim Thomas, co-executive director of ETC Group, which tracks new genetic engineering technologies, put it when asked for a reaction by EcoWatch.

The Natural Products Expo ignored protests from groups like ETC Group.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Expo didn’t convene in person, but it provided space on its website for the launch of Brave Robot, a synthetic ice cream made from Perfect Day’s “dairy identical” proteins generated by genetically engineered microbes.

In 2022, when the in-person Natural Products Expo resumed, it did so with a huge push for GMO 2.0, announcing:

“[T]oday, food tech is shorthand for a variety of processes like precision fermentation (where genetically altered micro-organisms produce specific functional molecules like proteins) and cell cultured production (where animal cells are grown outside their natural environment) to produce products we traditionally expect to come only from animals.

“At Expo, expect to see some new applications of precision fermentation in products like milk, ice cream, and cake. Also look for new (and long-established) plant-based meat analogs produced with fermented mycoprotein. * * *

“You’ll see products that have been produced with food tech for years, like cheese, Vitamin C and resveratrol. Also look for collagen products, animal-free dairy ice cream and algae-based fish.”

At that year’s State of Organic & Natural keynote presentation, Nick McCoy of Whipstitch Capital claimed, “The only way we are going to meet demand, as a planet, is through cultured meat.”

GMO 2.0 might be fine with money men like McCoy whose business is selling small brands to big companies, but most people in the organic and natural community were horrified to see genetic engineering and synthetic biology championed by the Natural Products Expo.

Michele Simon, a public health attorney who founded the Plant Based Foods Association, wrote an article in Forbes, “4 Ways Allowing Biotech Into The Natural Products Expo Is Harmful,” complaining that the Natural Products Expo was distorting the word “natural,” greenwashing biotech foods, confusing retailers and hurting legit natural brands, especially plant-based.

GMO and synbio “food” brands exhibiting at Expo in 2022 and 2023 included:

Bel Brands USA (Nurishh Incredible Dairy)

The maker of the iconic Babybel and Laughing Cow cheeses has a GMO synbio line called Nurishh using Perfect Day’s synthetic “whey” protein. Their marketing strategy is to offer a Cream Cheese Credit – $200 in cash paid directly via Venmo or PayPal – plus a year’s supply of product to 250 people who try the brand’s new animal free “dairy cream cheese” spread.

Betterland “Milk”

Betterland founder Lizanne Falsetto is the marketing genius who introduced high protein energy bars to the world in 1994 with her ThinkThin brand. Falsetto figured out a way to sell genetically engineered soy protein isolate, so she was expected to work her magic on Perfect Day’s GMO synbio “whey” protein, but Betterland’s milk and candy bars never made it to market. Betterland’s production has been paused and Falsetto is seeking a buyer. Was the Natural Products Expo launch just a pump-and-dump scam?

Conagra Brands

Conagra is vehemently pro-GMO, but some of its brands feature non-GMO foods, including Alexia, Angie’s, BOOMCHICKAPOP, Blake’s, Duke’s, Earth Balance, evol, Frontera, Gardein, Glutino, Udi’s, and Boulder Brands.

Eat Just (GOOD Meat)

Eat Just is the parent company of GOOD Meat, one of the first two brands to get regulatory approval to sell a cell-cultured, lab-grown “meat,” a synthetic chicken substitute, in the U.S. GOOD Meat says it’s non-GMO because “we use unmodified (non-GMO) chicken cells, which occur naturally in animals.” Lab-grown meat was supposed to feed the world and save the planet. So far, it’s available to only a handful of customers a week at just two expensive U.S. restaurants and  it emits ten times the greenhouse gas emissions of real, farm-raised meat.

Hain Celestial Group

In North America, 92 percent of Hain Celestial’s products are non-GMO, but it does use Monsanto’s genetically engineered Roundup Ready soy in some of its foods, including many of the Yves Veggie Cuisine products.

Jeneil Biotech

A genetic engineering and synthetic biology ingredients company, specializing in synthetic flavors to mask the off notes of vegan “dairy” products.

Meati

Like Quorn, Prime Roots, Bosque Foods, or MyForest, Meati straddles the fence between what would be considered synthetic biology and natural. Whereas precision fermentation involves producing synthetic proteins from genetically engineered microbes, Meati uses an unmodified naturally occurring soil microorganism, a Neurospora crassa type of mycelium. Other than the genetic engineering, the process is the same. As the folks at Meati put it, “At Meati Foods, you can find our species of mycelium (MushroomRoot!) submerged in big steel tanks holding nutrient-rich water and sugar.” The proteins that get produced this way were never before eaten by human beings. They couldn’t have occurred in nature or any traditional food making process involving fermentation. The Meati folks compare it to the kōji mold Aspergillus oryzae that is used to make sake, miso, and many other foods and drinks, but kōji mold first appeared naturally as mold on edible food and that natural fermentation process is more than 2000 years old. The Non-GMO Project is willing to verify products like Meati as non-GMO, but I for one wouldn’t want to eat it. Let’s see whether it can be proven, like naturally fermented foods, to have any health benefits.

Motif FoodWorks

Motif was incubated at Ginkgo Bioworks. Together they used synthetic biology to produce a protein they call HEMAMI that is so similar to the heme created by Impossible Foods that they’ve been sued by the company. Motif also makes APPATEX, “a hydrogel combining plant-based proteins and carbohydrates that Motif claims can replicate the ‘springiness, juiciness and bite associated with animal-based connective tissue​.’” Motif recently announced a collaboration with IngredientWerks on the old-school genetic engineering of corn, which it called “molecular farming,” citing the cost and capacity challenges of using genetically engineered microbes as synbio foundries. 

Plant-Plus Foods

As two of the biggest industrial food processors in the world, Plant-Plus Foods’ parent companies ADM and Marfrig are all about GMOs, but Plant-Plus Foods includes the brands Sol Cuisine and Hilary’s, known for their organic and non-GMO offerings. Plant-Plus Foods claims a “commitment to traceability, regenerative farming, and zero deforestation,” but Marfrig has been repeatedly implicated in illegal deforestation, as well as indigenous land rights violations and slave labor.

ReMilk

Boasting a board of executives formerly with Nestlé, Pepsi and Danone, this Israeli company collaborated with General Mills on Bold Cultr cream “cheese,” but the food giant shuttered the brand in 2023. ReMilk’s plan to build the world’s largest precision fermentation facility are “on hold.”

Strive FREEMILK Animal-Free Dairy

Unlike many of the brands running pump-and-dump scams to lure Big Food buyers without having to prove their products, Strive is sold in stores. Like many new GMO brands, Strive has unusual investors for a food brand. One of its patrons is Pentagon bioweapons contractor Black & Veatch. It is one of the seven companies Black & Veatch chose for its 2023 IgniteX Climate Tech Accelerator program.

Tomorrow Farms (Bored Cow)

Bored Cow, sold in stores across the country, claims to be free of genetically engineered ingredients. An FAQ on the website explains, “While this process [the process used to create Perfect Day’s synthetic “whey”] is a product of genetic engineering, there are no GMOs in the final product, because the microflora are carefully filtered out. That’s why you won’t find a bioengineering label on Bored Cow.”

The Urgent Company

The Urgent Company is home to Coolhaus and Brave Robot, synbio GMO brands sold in over 6,000 stores nationwide, including Whole Foods, Kroger and Costco. It used to be the consumer-facing brand of Perfect Day, the synbio GMO company that makes the synthetic “whey” all these “ice cream” products are made out of. In 2023, it was sold by Perfect Day to Superlatus for $1.25M, a pittance considering that Perfect Day was valued at $1.5B in 2021. Superlatus is a food technology and distribution company that recently merged with a subsidiary of pharmaceutical exchange platform provider TRxADE HEALTH. This month, it announced plans to enter the vegan dog food market.

Have you noticed a trend in the product snapshots above? Turns out it isn’t so easy to spend a few years in the lab synthetically replicating the foods cultivated over the 10,000-year history of modern agriculture—or to get consumers to eat them once you do.

The GMO synbio warriors who have snuck into the Natural Products Expo aren’t assured of a win. Sure, they have all the money and they’re mammoth monopolies, but there are more of us than there are of them. They haven’t cornered us yet. We still have the power to withdraw our consent. At this moment, we have a choice. We can still choose what we’ll eat. It might not be cheap, easy or convenient, but our health and our future depends on taking back control over our food before it’s too late.

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