To: Haagen Dazs, Edy's, Baskin Robbins, and other ice cream makers

Vermont--Tell Haagen Dazs, Edy's, and Baskin Robbins: No Extreme Genetic Engineering in our Ice C...

Dear Ice Cream Makers,

As consumers, we trust that when a company lists natural vanilla as an ingredient in its ice cream, that vanilla is produced from real vanilla beans, and is not the product of extreme genetic engineering.

Synbio vanilla (synthetic biology vanilla flavoring) will likely be on the market soon. It’s produced with a new, virtually unregulated, experimental genetic technology.

This new vanilla doesn’t even come from a plant. Instead, it is made in labs using synthetic DNA and genetically engineered yeast which exists nowhere in nature.

Worst of all, it’s being marketed as “natural”. But there’s nothing "natural" about genetically engineered yeast that excretes vanilla flavoring.

The health impacts of synbio vanilla haven’t been adequately tested and its production could harm sustainable farmers and poor communities across the world who rely on income from farming natural vanilla beans.

We call on ice cream companies to listen to your customers and commit to not use synthetic biology vanilla or sell products made with this ingredient.

Why is this important?

Natural vanilla flavor comes from a vanilla bean, right? Maybe not for long -- a new genetically engineered ingredient, straight out of a petri dish, is about to enter our favorite foods, from ice cream to birthday cake.

Synbio vanilla -- produced by a form of extreme genetic engineering called “synthetic biology” -- is stranger than science fiction, but regulators will still let food companies call it "natural". So we're asking major ice cream companies like Haagen Dazs, Edy’s, Baskin Robbins and others not to use this experimental genetically engineered vanilla in their products.

The truth is, this new vanilla doesn’t even come from a plant. Instead, it is made in labs using synthetic DNA and genetically engineered yeast that exists nowhere in nature. What’s worse, the FDA hasn’t even bothered to test this laboratory creation as a new product. Instead the agency will likely approve it as “Generally Regarded as Safe”.

As the first major use of synthetic biology in our food, synbio vanilla could set a dangerous precedent and open the floodgates to allow more synthetic, genetically engineered ingredients labeled as “natural”.

And if all of this wasn’t bad enough, this new synbio vanilla could speed rainforest destruction, and harm sustainable farmers and poor communities that rely on rainforest-raised vanilla beans to survive.

Ice cream companies are one of the biggest purchasers of vanilla flavoring and we need your help to send them a strong message: don't use this unnatural “synbio vanilla” in your ice cream.