Ice cream fanatics have something super-sweet coming to them, as long-beloved major brand Ben & Jerry's has finally "kowtowed" to critics who have denounced the confectionary-creators' continued use of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs).
Via a recently released statement, Ben & Jerry's now promises its salivating public that GMOs will no longer be used in its products as of 2015.
In a report published on Monday, June 3, Fox News notes that the Vermont-based ice cream company -- known for its wacky flavor concoctions named after various icons of both contemporary and nostalgic pop culture -- is actually intending on going totally GMO-free in 2013, but that such a transition may prove to be too difficult in such a short amount of time.
Hence the possibility that the company may "still be making this conversion into 2014," according to the official statement itself.
The statement issued by Ben & Jerry's goes on to illuminate the fact that the difficulty of a full transition away from GMO-infused ingredients lies in the complexity of the many flavors the company is known for.
"That's about 80 flavors, 110 ingredients and more than 200 different products to transition this year!" the statement says. "There can be almost 40 different ingredients in a single flavor, so you can see how complex this undertaking is."
Numbers revealed by the Fox News report depict the distinction that whereas Ben & Jerry's is currently completely GMO-free in Europe, the company still uses the contentious additives in 80 percent of its ingredients in the U.S.
But why are GMOs used at all?
GMOs have been the at the center of a long-going controversy due to the dichotomy that though they have been engineered to resist herbicides and insecticides, detractors say they the organisms can be deleterious both to the environment and to the health of those who ingest them.
At the end of last month (May 2013), we reported on the so-called "March Against Monsanto," a network of protests that took place in more than 36 nations and 250 cities across the globe. The protests stemmed from President Obama's signing into law HR 933, which has a clause that basically makes the federal government powerless when it comes to stopping large companies such as Monsanto from the planting or sale of GMOs ... even when such sales/planting may adversely affect our health or environment.
"We support those calling for transparency and a consumer's right to know and support the push for mandatory labeling," Ben & Jerry's continues in its statement. "We ought to all have freedom to choose whether or not we want to eat food that has been genetically engineered. We think this is a fundamental right."
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