The American people want to know whether or not their food has genetically modified components inside. But for the most part, the FDA has resisted any efforts to label foods as GMO-free or containing GMOs. Now, however, advocates for Non-GMO foods have done their work with a different regulatory agency, the USDA, in order to get labeling approved for meats and eggs that also indicates if the animals were fed GM food, signaling a small but important success in the fight for a transparent food industry. You may have heard this news, but we’re trying to spread the word even more!
Meat and eggs derived from animals who were not fed genetically-modified feed can now be labeled as such. Companies like Mindful Meats, Mary’s Chicken, and Hidden Villa Ranch are already approved for the GMO-free label and others will likely join their ranks. But the journey to this point wasn’t a simple one.
Unlike the FDA, who normally controls food regulations, the USDA never used third-party organizations to certify food issues. Now, after a lengthy review of the Non-GMO Project, however, the USDA has determined their certification process is reliable and scientific, and is good enough to satisfy their regulatory rigors.
The Non-GMO Project worked closely with food makers like Mary’s Chicken to develop labeling standards that could be approved by the USDA. These standards needed to be “honest, accurate, and transparent,” according to NaturalNews, three things most of us want from our food regulators.
Related Read: Top 10 Worst GMO Foods for Your GMO Foods List
Prior to this approval, the USDA had denied several meat producers who wanted to use such a label. The reason: the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) was not done with their review of the Non-GMO Project standards and practices. It took the USDA more than a year to make this determination as it’s obviously something they were cautious of.
“We started meeting with them to find out what the key objections were and how we navigate through that,” Dave Carter of the National Bison Association told Food Navigator. “I think it will be a very important claim for the meat industry. The non GMO label is the fastest label claim in the marketplace. Consumers want to have that option.”
“It means everything to have this label and we’re very thankful that FSIS worked with us to get this approved,” said David Pitman of Mary’s Chicken, a company that currently has 17 non-GMO verified products on the market.
These companies are rolling out their labeled products right now. While the new labeling only applies to meat and eggs, it’s certainly a victory for those of us who believe we have the right to know what we are eating.
That is fine. This is the way it ought to be. Now if you nuts want to eat this high priced stuff go ahead.
First, you have to trust them to believe that they will properly label foods. I have zero trust that they will properly label foods. So… no. Labeling is NOT good enough. They are giving a false sense of security so that people will shut up over GMO labeling. People truly have no clue how far contaminated our food supply has become. It isn't just crops, but other things too…
I cannot eat any GMOS or any foods that have been contaminated with pesticides. The reality is that at the rate Monsanto is taking over the food supply, I'll be dead in 10 years. For me it is a matter of life and death. Yet sadly a lot of people see GMOs as saving our species and would be perfectly fine with people like me being sacrificed for the "greater good". Talk about sick! To make matters worse, instead of GMOs guaranteeing continuity of our species, it will guarantee our extinction.
If they think they are going to smother the small amount of resistance they are beginning to experience, they're dead wrong. There is more than one way to skin a cat.
Murphey's law is going to rear its ugly head soon.
"First, you have to trust them to believe that they will properly label foods. I have zero trust that they will properly label foods. So… no. Labeling is NOT good enough. They are giving a false sense of security so that people will shut up over GMO labeling."
AMEN. People are waking up, again. Before NO ONE saw this. Thank you and to the rest
of the posters that can SEE with EYES WIDE OPEN. Kudos.
You are right. They lie and lie and lie. Monsanto got the GMO products in with hardly any testing despite researchers saying it is dangerous. And then to introduce a herbicide Roundup into the gene is insane. I would not put them past it to pacify the public and place labels on the products that say it is non gmo when in fact it is, simply because they change the name from gmo to whatever else they decide to call it. Then they can get away from it in court. Monsanto sleaze bags will not go away in the United States. The Government backs them up and the FDA too. they have all the power here that they could not claim in Europe. we need a mass revolt and make it clear that the politicians responsible for backing them up will be physically removed from office because voting is rigged. Half the white house has investments in Monsanto. The whole world plan by them is to produce and produce and produce to make a huge profit and this is how they do it. They eventually take over the entire United States farms, knock out the organic crops, and then only have their Money is their God. Frankenstein crops that don't die. And they care less about who gets sick.
This is WONDERFUL! I wonder if they'll be able to keep it, or if they'll be made to yank the labels!
I will definitely buy it. I only buy organic. It costs more yes, and I'm broke all the time, yes. But it's worth it and I feel better and my health is better and I can move around better than ever! Organic and non GMO is the only way to go!!!!
Hope to see Publix selling some of this !
While this is a good start, it is hardly good enough. So we go ahead and eat one safe food but what about the rest??? That is like eating good from one plate and getting poison from the other. Obama gave Monsanto a pass which empowered them. So the rest of the food chain is most likely saturated with Monsanto's roundup and we will never know it. Check out Europe and how they ban Monsanto GMO. And then check the articles in Europe that are snuffed here, showing that GMO's are actually changing our DNA for the worse and are a link to leukemia, as well as creating changes to the lining of our stomach. We need more than what they did with the meat and eggs.
Amen. Kudos.
Wondered if GMO's are also changing the facial and body structure of people. That and the cell towers/wi-fi 4G-5G compounding that – screwing with our original DNA and cellular healing.
The more perspectives we have about this,
coming from some very aware and intelligent minds …
WE are tired of GMO's AT ALL.
Labeling is just a start. Something tells me though that when a huge corporation like MonSatan can get glyphosate upgraded to stealth form…. it won't be long till they can unknowingly whittle away at our food supply. I love that this stuff is being labeled but the bigger issue is in the time the labels may come out, our food, water, etc. will already be contaminated. The Big picture is to protest and ban ALL GMO's and useage of chemicals.
Our fear of a few bugs did not harm the great 'Victory Gardeners' only the use of chemicals.
PS:) Check out the Huff Post and the kids who were sprayed by plane while picking corn tassels. Amazing!!!
"The Big picture is to protest and ban ALL GMO's and useage of chemicals. "
Amen.
Round up and pesticides are already harming our Waters – the run-off into our Lakes, Rivers, Oceans
There's a new breed of Organic Farmers who use NO pesticides – Rosemary, Garlic and other natural herb/plant repellant has been used for some small natural farms and their fruits come out DELICIOUS.
If it look too pretty and perfect, I would start looking into the gmo factor.
do we want monsanto GMO'ing the trees and lawn in our own backyard?
NO, get them out.
America is still backwards and needs to catch up with the rest of the International world.
URBANA, Ill. — Almost 80 teenagers were expected to be sent home from an eastern Illinois hospital Thursday after being accidentally sprayed with fungicide from a crop-dusting plane as they worked in corn field, officials said.
The 79 teens were decontaminated by firefighters at the field just outside Pesotum and then taken to the Carle Foundation Hospital's emergency room in Urbana to be treated for what appeared to be minor ailments, hospital officials said.
Emergency room director Allen Rinehart said some of the teen workers had irritated skin but that they were all stable and being released to their parents as they were seen.
"There's been a couple that have had minor irritations, but nothing significant," Rinehart said as the last group of teens, wearing blue jumpsuits and many carrying coolers and lunch boxes, stood nearby waiting to enter the emergency room. Many joked and talked as they waited.
The teenagers were detasseling corn when the chemical drifted over them from a plane that was crop-dusting an adjacent field, said Tom Helscher, a spokesman for Monsanto, the St. Louis-based company using the field to produce seed corn. Pesotum is about 15 miles south of Urbana.
Brad Rollings' 13-year-old son, Tyler, was one of those sprayed with the chemical.
"He said that he heard the plane go over the top and it felt like it was raining for a minute, and then he said they hollered at them to get out of the field," Rollings, who is from nearby Villa Grove, said outside the hospital. He said his son seemed fine and expected him to be released soon.
"As soon as he called me, he kept telling me over and over, `Dad, I'm fine, you don't need to come pick me up,'" Rollings said.
The accident happened just before 8:40 a.m., Champaign County acting Deputy Fire Chief Dave Ferber said. The department's firefighters helped decontaminate the teens with soap and water, he said.
Spokesmen for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and state Bureau of Environmental Programs said the agencies are investigating the incident.
Detasselers _commonly teenagers looking for summer jobs – pull the pollinating tassels off the top of corn plants that will produce seed for future planting.
The teens were working for Team Corn, a Princeton, Ill.-based company that contracts for Monsanto, a woman who answered the company's phone said before referring further questions to Monsanto.
It wasn't immediately clear what the chemical was or who flew the plane.
Federal workplace safety regulations allow children as young as 12 to work on farms in jobs that OSHA doesn't consider hazardous provided their parents' consent. Detasseling is one of those jobs. Even younger children can do some types of farm work under certain conditions.
Team Corn's website says the company hires detasselers as young as 12 for work across Illinois, while teens have to be 14 to be hired in Iowa and Indiana.
Pay ranges from $7.25 to $10 an hour, depending on the workers' speed and ability, according to the website. Work crews are led by leaders who must be at least 17, according to the site.
In 2011, two 14-year-old girls working as detasselers in a corn field near Tampico in northwest Illinois for Monsanto and another company were electrocuted by irrigation equipment. OSHA found the companies weren't at fault and that lightning may have struck the irrigation system. The parents filed wrongful death lawsuits against the companies which are still pending.
Rollings said he worked as a detasseler as a child and wouldn't hesitate to let his son return to the job.
"I have no concerns about it whatsoever," he said.
___
Follow David Mercer on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidmercerap
This was posted in the 'Huffington Post' today.
This is WHY labeling will only benefit the time that MonSatan has to stronghold the food supply into oblivion and our water, bees, etc. will no longer be alive and our healthcare will be overwelming.
USDA? USDA Organic label is no longer 'organic'. They allow a percentage of pesticides, herbicides, and insectices (and yes, even GMOs) to pass through.
So, whose actually in charge of the Verfication process and how can we trust that
the final process is indeed GMO-free?
Reminding some that the USDA is the federal govt. The fed govt is in bed with Monsanto and Corporations.
For the most part, the non-GMO project is good. But, they are not 100 percent GMO-nor do they
claim their current verification to test for 100 percent GMO free results. And let's hope that the Non-GMO hasn't compromised itself or will sell out.
The next step is Pushing for 0% GMO's in all the verfication steps in the food chain –
another GMO-FREE verfification system that goes ALL THE WAY.
And the last part, Monsanto is still co-existing in your backyard and our good farmer's next door.
possibly finding new ways to slip in GMO there, GE there, if we aren't watching and aware.
The final solution is the complete and total elimnation of GMO's, Monsanto and Roundup
pesticides and all of the like.
Let's keep asking the questions and use DISCERNMENT when it comes to anything that has to
do with the GMO and GE news these days.
Keep growing your own garden and food if you can,
buy pure heirloom hybrid-free seeds verfified to be gmo-free from it's beginning and join/support your Seed Savers (the ones that are truly GMO-free, some have sold out to the govt),
take some action and find out how you can actually BAN Monsanto and GMO's in every way – and change the laws in your own city, town and county that protect the corporations that protect
Big Ag. Kicking Monsanto and friends out forever.
(wouldn't' be surprised if 'govt' manufactures some pseudo-law to prevent kicking them out as a reaction.
Nullifcation then)
Peace.
I found this ClassAction.org http://www.classaction.org/monsanto-genetically-m…
Seems a lawsuit is brewing against Monsanto for their negligence in contaminating Wheat, which the farmers are having returned to them. Europe will not accept modified wheat and it seems that there were instances that farmers were unaware that nearby monsanto fields contaminated their supply. When the wheat was tested, it was returned. Monsanto is ruining our economy, forcing untainted product to be a commodity of the past, and forcing a product on us that we do not want. They look for the dollar bottom line, and could care less about our health.
I found this on ClassAction.org http://www.classaction.org/monsanto-genetically-m…
There is no safety in overdosing plants and people with pesticides. Our food reserves are depleted. We have been paying far to much attention to what is happening everwhere else in the world while our food supply has been usurped and contaminated with Federal permission since the mid 70's. If you look at the statistics for obesity, diabetes, cancer, ADD, Autism and I could go on but they have multiplied exponentially from 1980 to the present. We add sugar or high-fructose corn syrup to every canned or packaged food in this country, and chemical preservatives and food coloring and thickeners. None of this stuff is nutritious. It is for economic reasons, not for quality of product. It is all about appearances, not good health. Have you ever asked yourself how a huge corporation that manufactures toxix pesticides got into the food business? It should be prohibited by the law of man as well as the law of nature. By the way, the European Union has a proposal on the table right now to demand registration and ownership of all seeds. This is so obviously a World Bank backed projectbecause those shareholders are the wealthiest, most powerful people in the world. It is no accident that there new demands coincide with the actions of Monsanto in this country. All under the guise of feeding the hungry of the world. I tend to think it is more of an attempt at world domination. The most we can do is hold our government representative responsible for not doing their jobs or working for the protection and safety of the citizens of our country. We need to deman that they listen to us and show where their allegiance lies, one by one, so we know who is with us and who is against us. Then we need to talk to the ones who will listen to rewrite the rules of Congress so that this NEVER happens again. We all became complacent because we never thought we would be so thoroughly betrayed.
GREENWASHING THE ORGANIC MOVEMENT: SPEAK UP
Non-GMO Verified must be verified themselves!!
Once wrote to them asking them if they allow, through
verification process any GMOs, pesticides, etc within the animal feed process – for products like raw goat cheese, yogurt, range-free chicken eggs, etc.
They wrote back, mistaking me for a a business customer,
telling me that they could allow a percentage amount in and to email again, to discuss how they could accomodate that.
How do you even trust supposed labeling when projects like
'Non-GMO projects' — in alliance with Whole Foods – who in turn has in alliance with Tom Vilsack of the FDA – who himself is in alliance with Monsanto – who funded and gave donations to Monsanto — ?
GREENWASHING THE ORGANIC MOVEMENT: SPEAK UP
Non-GMO Verified must be verified themselves!!
Once wrote to them asking them if they allow, through
verification process any GMOs, pesticides, etc within the animal feed process – for products like raw goat cheese, yogurt, range-free chicken eggs, etc.
They wrote back, mistaking me for a a business customer,
telling me that they could allow a percentage amount in and to email again, to discuss how they could accomodate that.
How do you even trust supposed labeling when projects like
'Non-GMO projects' — in alliance with Whole Foods – who in turn has in alliance with Tom Vilsack of the FDA – who himself is in alliance with Monsanto – who funded and gave donations to Monsanto — ?
some background history and info:
the Non-GMO Project is funded by Whole Foods.
Whole Foods has been funded by Tom Vilsack.
Tom Vilsack is funded by Monsanto.
"In its email of Jan. 21, 2011 WFM calls for 'public oversight by the USDA rather than reliance on the biotechnology industry,' even though WFM knows full well that federal regulations on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) do not require pre-market safety testing, nor labeling; and that even federal judges have repeatedly ruled that so-called government 'oversight' of Frankencrops such as Monsanto's sugar beets and alfalfa is basically a farce. At the end of its email, WFM admits that its surrender to Monsanto is permanent: 'The policy set for GE alfalfa will most likely guide policies for other GE crops as well. True coexistence is a must.'
"According to informed sources, the CEOs of WFM and Stonyfield are personal friends of former Iowa governor, now USDA Secretary, Tom Vilsack, and in fact made financial contributions to Vilsack's previous electoral campaigns. Vilsack was hailed as 'Governor of the Year' in 2001 by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and traveled in a Monsanto corporate jet on the campaign trail. Perhaps even more fundamental to Organic Inc.'s abject surrender is the fact that the organic elite has become more and more isolated from the concerns and passions of organic consumers and locavores. The Organic Inc. CEOs are tired of activist pressure, boycotts, and petitions. Several of them have told me this to my face. They apparently believe that the battle against GMOs has been lost, and that it's time to reach for the consolation prize. The consolation prize they seek is a so-called 'coexistence' between the biotech Behemoth and the organic community that will lull the public to sleep and greenwash the unpleasant fact that Monsanto's unlabeled and unregulated genetically engineered crops are now spreading their toxic genes on 1/3 of U.S. (and 1/10 of global) crop land.
"WFM and most of the largest organic companies have deliberately separated themselves from anti-GMO efforts and cut off all funding to campaigns working to label or ban GMOs. The so-called Non-GMO Project, funded by Whole Foods and giant wholesaler United Natural Foods (UNFI) is basically a greenwashing effort (although the 100% organic companies involved in this project seem to be operating in good faith) to show that certified organic foods are basically free from GMOs (we already know this since GMOs are banned in organic production), while failing to focus on so-called 'natural' foods, which constitute most of WFM and UNFI's sales and are routinely contaminated with GMOs.
Unfortunately the brands listed are expensive but quite thankful it’s a good start.
Does anyone know what are the non-rBST dairy products? Most milk and yogurt says it’s not used in them but what ones are? Cheeses doesn’t have it on their labels or butter. Just curious because rBST cows must be sold in some dairy products.
idiotic
meaningless
you are not a smart person
so stupid
Big scary Monsanto, it’s amazing how they own everybody while being slightly larger than Whole Foods.