This information is particularly important if you:
- Live in the United States (though it is likely generally useful to people elsewhere)
- Have opinions about the presence of genetically-modified ingredients in your food
- Are interested in what labels mean, and the consequences to both you and food producers
I will preface this by saying that this might be a specialist-knowledge thing and that I am one of few people who gets irrationally upset by this. However, I do, and I think it might be interesting to you folks as well. This post will not be getting into the economics, politics, optics, safety, morality, or anything else of GMOs, that's a different post.
In the United States of America, a food cannot be labeled "organic" if it contains any genetically-modified ingredients (GMOs)1. All of the times you see a food labeled "USDA Organic" (or any state level organic certification)2, the food legally cannot contain GM ingredients3.
All of this is to say that a "Non GMO Project Verified" badge is, for most practical purposes, completely redundant with any state or federal organic certification label. To be clear: I am fine with giant food companies choosing to pay extra to have a third party verify their processes. Whatever. Capitalism, they have the money.
However, I strongly believe that consumer expectation for medium/local-tier organic food businesses to pay for third-party certification of an essentially-redundant label is not helpful. I don't know what this kind of third-party certification costs, but from what I have seen it's not cheap. Plus, it's really not providing any more useful information to the consumer.
So now you know! Any food in a (United States) grocery store labeled as organic is also GM-free! No need for extra research.
Bonus information: A lot of few-ingredient foods also proudly label their GM-free status. While I am happy for them, this kind of labeling implies that GM crops are everywhere and must be carefully avoided. However, in many cases, this label simply means "✨we are not breaking the law!✨". I'm glad, but also...
There is a good database of all approved transgenic events for all crops, including non-food crops, from an industry consortium. The database is filterable by crop, country, trait, approval, and developer—the pertinent takeaway here is that most foods do not have approved transgenic events in any country (I counted 32 total crops, 7 non-food). If you're shopping, especially on a per-ingredient vs. highly-processed basis, it's actually pretty easy to avoid GM crops.
Take this information and be free!
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7 CFR Part 205, § 205.2 "Excluded methods" and 7 CFR Part 205, § 205.301, plus this USDA blog post
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Any state-level organic certification must be at least as strict as USDA organic certification standards. 7 CFR Part 205, § 205.620
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Yes there is some tolerance for cross-contamination, but more in a "okay let's fix it" than "eh whatever" sense.4
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Absolutely there is an enforcement conversation to be had here, laws are only as good as their enforcement. My personal view of the quality of US food safety enforcement (as someone who was more or less paid to be aware of that) is "it's mids". Not great, not horrendous. We should have more money in the federal budget for USDA and FDA to do compliance work. We should have a lot more money in the federal budget for, frankly, most non-military things. Whee!