Officials representing Novartis Consumer Health (Summit, NJ) said late in July that the company subsidiary that makes Gerber baby foods will no longer be using corn or soy derived from GM plants and, instead, is shifting toward use of "organic" ingredients in those products. Although a reexamination of Gerber baby food ingredients was triggered by an inquiry from an environmental activist at Greenpeace (New York), the company instituted its new policy based on an understanding of "what our customers want in baby food," according to a Gerber spokeswoman. "We're in the business of protecting our customers." The parent company also supports an active plant genetics research, development, and marketing program at another subsidiary, Novartis Seeds (Golden Valley, MN). However, Gerber executives were "operating independently" when they developed the policy not to use genetically "enhanced" ingredients, she says. Several other US-based baby food producers, including HJ Heinz (Pittsburgh, PA) and Healthy Time Natural Foods (Poway, CA), say that they are following similar policies.