GMO food labeling

The fierceness with which Big Ag fights every attempt to require food producers to label their products that contain Genetically Modified Organisms as such is a dead giveaway that Big Ag knows no one will knowingly buy much less eat GMO foods.

And if Americans suddenly started seeing GMO labels on virtually every food product in the grocery, there'd be a backlash that would threaten to topple the entire GMO empire.

From Firedoglake:

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) have “introduced the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act [requiring] the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to clearly label genetically engineered (GE) foods” as such.

Carey L. Biron at Nation of Change:

A decades-long push to require the labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients in the United States received a significant boost Wednesday, when bipartisan bills on the issue were simultaneously proposed in the House and Senate.

Advocates of such measures are reacting with excitement, noting that the new bills appear to be far better positioned than previous such attempts, in terms of both public and Congressional support. If the bills pass, the United States would join 64 other countries that have already put in place similar laws or regulations.

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“Americans have the right to know what is in the food they eat so they can make the best choices for their families,” Senator Barbara Boxer, a key sponsor of the new bill and author of the 2000 proposal, said Wednesday.

“This legislation is supported by a broad coalition of consumer groups, businesses, farmers, fishermen and parents who all agree that consumers deserve more – not less – information about the food they buy.”

Indeed, public opinion on the matter appears to be overwhelmingly on the side of the new proposal, which would direct the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the main government regulator on food-related issues, to require food producers to clearly label their products if they contain genetically engineered (GE) components.

According to multiple polls in recent years (including here and here), more than 90 percent of people in the United States favor the FDA requiring the labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients.

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“The fact of the matter is that, for far too long, the FDA has been playing politics over science,” Colin O’Neil, the director of government affairs at the Center for Food Safety, a Washington advocacy group, told IPS.

“Corn that produces its own insecticide, or a fish that grows twice as fast as normal, or an apple that doesn’t turn brown for 30 days – we know these are material changes and that those are novel foods.”