General Mills Turns To 'Raja Of The Country Of World Peace' To Certify Its Costlier, Non-GMO Cheerios

Image of Cheerios/Wikipedia

Drew Kershen and Alan McHughan at Forbes:

Recently, cereal makers General Mills GIS -2.43% and Post announced that they had reformulated their flagship brands (Cheerios and Grape Nuts, respectively) to avoid genetically-modified (GMO) ingredients. Cheerios will henceforth state “Not made with genetically modified ingredients.” A box of Grape Nuts sports the “Non-GMO Verified” logo.

Curiously, General Mills and Post did not simply introduce an additional version of Cheerios and Grape Nuts to attract GMO-wary consumers, but killed off the original flagship brands, thus alienating brand-loyal consumers of the popular cereals. These reliable customers, estimated at 75% or more, must now bear several novel and undesirable consequences...

Read the full story @ General Mills Turns To 'Raja Of The Country Of World Peace' To Certify Its Costlier, Non-GMO Cheerios

Update:

28-March 2014.
Forbes have for some reason now pulled the story that was previously at the above link.  The important, now missing discussion included this:

"As bizarre as it seems, it gets worse. When investigators looked at who likely assisted General Mills and Post acquire non-GMO ingredients, the investigators uncovered the “Non-GMO Project” and its director/advisor John Fagan, whose formal title is Raja of the Global Country of World Peace with Responsibility for Food Safety and Purity for Healthy Invincibility, affiliated with the Maharishi movement in Fairfield, Iowa. John Fagan also is the founder of Genetic-ID, a business that performs tests to verify that food products meet the various non-GMO standards..."