Fifteen years ago, the US Food and Drug Administration conducted consumer focus groups on labeling genetically modified foods. The FDA found, as most other surveys do, that “virtually all participants said that bioengineered foods should be labeled as such.” Many focus group participants expressed outrage that GM foods had been “snuck in” to the food supply without their knowledge and were disturbed by the lack of public information to a major change in their foods.
That was true 15 years ago, and it is even more so today.
Commonsense would seem to dictate that food companies would make this information available to their customers as a commitment to transparency. Instead, major food companies, along with biotech and agriculture industries, are trying harder to keep Americans in the dark about GMOs in foods.
Take the latest industry attempt to squash consumers’ right to know: the so-called “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act.” The bill would preempt state GMO labeling laws. It would establish a national voluntary standard for labeling foods as GMO or non-GMO. Voluntary GMO labeling? Food companies have been able to do this for many years. How many have? Zero.
Labeling supporters have dubbed Pompeo’s bill as the DARK Act (Deny Americans the Right to Know).
Contrast the DARK Act with the Vermont legislature’s overwhelming vote in favor of GMO labeling. In a victory for democracy, Vermont citizens have called for GMO labeling, and the state’s legislators have responded—despite threats of a lawsuit by Big Food/Biotech.
One bill is a top-down attempt to crush state labeling efforts and keep consumers in the dark, the other is a grassroots-led initiative to bring light to what is in our food.
The trend is toward more food transparency; people want to know what ingredients are in their food. For example, Chipotle’s customers supported their move to reveal the GMO ingredients they use in the foods served in their restaurants.
But Big Food and Biotech’s response is to hide and deny, and that’s why Americans in 1999, who participated in the FDA’s focus groups, and even more today are outraged when they learn that GMOs have been “snuck in” to their foods. And that’s why more and more states, such as Vermont, want to bring light to this deception.
Thought i’d share a video i made of yesterday’s March against Monsanto here in Vancouver, BC Canada…
http://youtu.be/FRW7_cwgfbQ
Thanks. Great work in BC!
Well done Ken Roseboro – keep writing your articles. Although I live in Ireland (and I believe we’re still relatively GMO free) I nevertheless read up on all anti GMO articles and spread them out to my contacts. It’s just incredible that people can’t see that GMO foods and all their evil subsidiaries are only out to gain control of the food/seed industry. They have NOTHING whatsoever to do with solving world hunger – but only serve to fill the pockets of the already über rich.
Eugenie
Dear Eugenie. Thank you for your support! I’m glad to hear Ireland is still GMO-free. Yes, please spread the news about GMOs. We need more people to wake up!
Hi Ken Roseboro
we have a very big farm in Bolivia making production GMO soybean in 30000mt per year.
I am interested being informed the disputes Non-GMO vs GMO.
I am really concern about the food safety vs producing sufficient food to meet the increasing needs of mankind. where is better way for the countries with no sufficient land for agricultural production.
I am looking forward of your commentary.
Best rgards
Peter Zeng
Hi Peter,
Thank you for the comment and I’m glad to hear about your farm. How big is your farm? There are good markets for non-GMO soybeans right now. Do you have availability of non-GMO seed? You can look at our website for more information about non-GMO opportunities. There is an organization of non-GMO producers in Brazil called ABRANGE that could possibly help you. There may also be US buyers that could buy non-GMO soybeans from you.
I’m curious about your situation there in Bolivia and how much GMO and non-GMO soybean production there is.
If you have any questions, let me know.
Thanks,
Ken Roseboro
My family decided that the one sure way to know what we are consuming is to grow it ourselves! This book helped us get started….worth sharing.
Click Here!
We need to label politicians! As the keynote speaker at the Bio International Convention, she called anyone who does NOT believe that GMOs are safe as “ignorant”. She also bragged about scattering GMO seeds “all over Africa” by avoiding the phrase Genetically Engineered” because that doesn’t sound like something we would want, and called them “drought resistant” instead. Think Hillary puts “spin” on a lot of things? Avoid supporting any politician that supports GMOs. Obama appointed 20 some Monsanto related persons in charge of our agriculture, food, water and health. Did you vote for him the second time around? I didn’t. Don’t support Hillary or you will get what you ask for.
I agree with your opinion about that GMO food should be labeled. Although many scientists proved that GMO foods do not affect human health and environment, I oppose the GMO products. GMO foods are generated from science laboratory, by change the genetic make-up of a crop. However, some of FDA scientists repeatedly warned about that GMOs could create allergies, toxins, new diseases, etc. I strongly agree to this claim, which is also supported by many people. When people eliminate GMOs, they had more energy, better digestion, reduced allergies and better skin conditions. According to a research review by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, many of these disorders also affected lab animals fed GMOs. Scientists and FDA should understand that there are reasons people avoid eating GMOS, they should research more on the effect of GMO in human body. Also, if GMOs do not solve issue about work hunger then there is no point that we should adopt GMOs; it will just increase the use of herbicide. Furthermore recent article “with more food than ever why is hunger on the rise?” points out that currently there is enough food to feed all the population in the world. Therefore, the GMOs do not help our health and environment so it should be banned or labeled for people who refuse to eat it.
Also, I believe that people have rights to avoid GMOs. However, FDA did not require labeling GMOs. While FDA is being generous toward GMOs, the adoption rates for GM soya 93 percent in the U.S. As a result, many people are eating GMOs even without notice. As a result, people who are allergic to GMOs will have symptoms without knowing the reason. My point is that we need to label the GMOs even if there’s no evidence that GM food is harmful, because everyone have the rights to know about what they eat.
I see nothing wrong with providing the world with a larger food supply, but don,t see how that can be done with non-GMO in the future