The government isn’t particularly interested in making sure Americans know what they’re eating. It seems like knowing what is in the food should be a basic right, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.ย In fact, last week Congress passed a federal requirement for labeling products containing genetically modified ingredients that signifies a big win for food companies.
The bill will require labels to be retooled or updated to show whether any ingredients had their natural DNA altered, but it will be years before the new labels are phased in, and food companies won’t be required to list specific information on their products.
GMO labeling proponents had hoped the bill would be more like a state law in Vermont, which requires food companies and grocers selling prepared foods to explicitly label foods that contain GMO ingredients by January.
The more vagueย bill passed by Congress will supersede these stricter state laws. [1]
The government is only willing to go so far in its definition of genetically modified foods.ย The U.S. Department of Agriculture says removing DNA from a crop is not the same as adding genes from another organism. This means that corn injected with outside DNA is technically considered a GMO, but canola that can tolerate herbicide because scientists removed a gene is not.
This also means that products created through gene-editing are already on store shelves in the U.S., but because of the USDA loophole, consumers don’t realize it. In fact, this regulatory gap allows American consumers to beย duped into purchasing gene-edited products that are actually labeled non-GMO.
Monsanto, DuPont, and Dow Chemical have all struck licensing deals with smaller companies for gene-editing technology. Last year, 8,000 acres of gene-edited canola were harvested by U.S. farmers, and the crops were processed into cooking oil marketed as non-GMO.
Carl Jorgenson, director of wellness strategy at Daymon Worldwide, a retail marketing firm, said:
โThereโs a feeling among consumers that they want their food as close as possible to what nature intended.ย Thereโs an overall distrust of Big Food and Big Science.โ
GMO opponents are often portrayed in the media and many in the scientific community as conspiracy theorists and science-deniers. In light of the USDA’s unwillingness to acknowledge that food products with deleted DNA are just as genetically modified as products injected with genes, it’s not hard to see why that overall distrust exists.
Regardless, an increasing number of Americans are avoiding GMO foods. Some 52% of respondents to a Mintel survey said they deliberately purchase non-GMO products. Many food companies are responding to this push for all-natural products, and nearly 17% of new food products introduced in the U.S. last year carried a non-GMO label, up from less than 3% in 2011. ย The issue of genetically modifying the food supply was named one of the top stories influencing behavior in Americans under 40 in 2015. [2]
But some of those labels are clearly deceptive, and evenย though last week Congress passed a fairly loose GMO-labeling bill, it won’t apply to gene-edited crops as regulations now stand.
It is also important to point out that under the bill passed last week by Congress, food companies that don’t want to reveal GMO ingredients on product labels can simply use a “QR code” that must be scanned using a smartphone or tablet. [3]
Sources:
[3] NPR
Both the House and the Senate betrayed us several times on this bill – despite 92% or more of Americans demanding labels equal to or better than those set out by Vermont’s excellent law. Two of the Senate’s most damaging actions on it were carried out – AS USUAL on particularly fascist bills – in the dead of night when no one could see what they were doing and no one could call to protest anyway because the phones aren’t manned then. No one represents us anymore. Had enough yet?
Besides overthrowing States’ rights by negating Vermont’s comprehensive law – plus over 100 existing ‘minor’ laws in other states – this bill from legislators who got thousands of bucks from Big Ag is class war on the non-rich. It requires that financially struggling Americans buy a smartphone (with a yet-to-be-designed app) to scan confusing QR matrix codes and then be directed to a corporation’s confusing site full of ads to eventually learn what Could have been learned from a simple printed label – ASSUMING, of course, that the website hasn’t crashed from millions of access attempts and ASSUMING, of course, that you can get a SIGNAL inside the grocery store that lets you use your expensive phone and access the net. I wonder how much the smartphone industry paid Roberts and Stabenow to require it in their class-war bill. – Had enough yet?
Most seniors, poor, and disproportionately rural folks don’t have a smartphone. – Many can’t afford one and don’t want one due to privacy issues. The app lets marketers spy on your buying habits and ‘share’ (steal and reveal) the information with others for money. – The history of the RFID/chip/spy industry shows that stores ultimately intend to ‘tailor’ prices according to buying habits. Buy expensive stuff? Fine; we’ll up the prices but give you a ‘discount’ to keep you coming back (store ‘courtesy’ card). Too poor to buy much? Fine; we’ll either scam you with a ‘discount’ card and/or up the prices so you’ll go elsewhere. – Been spied on and jerked around enough yet?
The corporate media are being quiet, so I don’t know yet whether Obama has signed this bill that denies us the right to know what’s in our food and thus attacks public health. He promised us in 2007 and 2008 that he”d support that right; but it appears to have worked out like his ‘promise’ to su pport unions. – I don’t know whether egomaniacal imbecile Trump has taken a stand on GMOs; Clinton (like Vilsack) is a darling of the GMO industry (BIO Conference speech, e.g.). If the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) is approved by a Prez Trump or a Prez Clinton (likely in both cases), then the GMO industry will also be able to forbid death/injury lawsuits by citizens regarding GMOs and the carcinogens that they produce nternally and/or are sprayed with.
Had enough yet?
Yes, of you your stupidity that is.
So you – like all GMO shills – don’t give a damn for the stated will of 02% of Americans.
Note: This is the last reply I’ll give you on this particular post, as you’re a known troll.
Congress was voted in to lead not to give in to the irrational will of the mob.
Isn’t it funny that everyone supposedly wanted labeling, and when it passes the only thing people want to do is whine.
โYour assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.โ -Isaac Asimov
Good one. – I was recently searching for quotes no elections and found this one too:
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’.” โIsaac Asimov
…which could explain a lot about the current Trumpiness; chuckle.
And I could give you cute little quotes as well, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is now the law of the land. Your side simply outsmarted themselves when people seen through your lies. And now you can’t handle it.
(_!_)
LOL, can’t handle the truth.
‘The pot calling the kettle black’, something that you say which means someone should not criticize another person for a fault that they have themselves
Sorry, wrong again. I’m totally against labeling, my side lost and still yet you are the one whining.
It looks as if someone needs a tissue for their lost issue. Grow up child and eat more GMO products. Put your mouth where your propaganda is, and also ALL of your money!
Eat gmo sweet corn every chance I get from the local farmer down the road. Also buy local gmo fed beef to put in the freezer and have for years.
โThe measure of intelligence is the ability to change.โ – Albert Einstein
So you can’t think for yourself the best you can do is to steal quotes from others? How sad.
(_!_) – “Der Marmor nicht noch nicht halten kann die Form eines jeden Gedankens der grรถsste Kรผnstler ist.” Michelangelo
See Above
Your trolling and responses are now officially gone way of spam. You can leave as many replies you wish and I will receive *0*. Bye bye troll! This user is blocked.
Lol, the best you were able to do was to use quotes. Never once did you actually add anything.
Your use of the term “whine” is intentionally denigrating. – We all know that the ‘labeling’ offered by this treacherous bill does Not go into effect until ca. 2 years, has No penalties for noncompliance, is voluntary, overturns Vermont’s excellent law (the one we want and need), overthrows ca. 100 existing laws in other states; and requires financially struggling people to buy a smart phone, learn to use an app, pray for a signal for phones & internet access in the store, repeat a lengthy process for every considered item for purchase, and so forth.
Note: This will be my only reply to you on this post, as you are a troll.
Lol, it doesn’t make any intelligent person do a thing, as the educated are smart enough to know gmos are 100% safe. You won’t reply to that cause you have no answer.
I suppose those who can’t afford a smart phone will be offered one by the federal government. That will make it even easier to monitor the masses!
They have to know what’s in our foods. Who want to eat GMO foods if it’s harmful to our health?
But educated people know gmos aren’t harmful. No matter how many lies you tell.
GMOs themselves are pathogenic,and so are the carcinogens that are sprayed on them – no matter how many lies Monsanto and its paid surrogates tell.
Note: This is my last reply to you no this particular post, as you’re a known troll.
Not all gmos are sprayed, but that is yet another of your lies. You say you won’t reply, but you have said it at least three times. Yet anther lie.
You’re a liar because Professor from TCU have mention about GMO foods are design to cause cancer and premature aging in human. They tried on lab rats with GMO corns and cause them become infertile and you know it, too. So stop lying about it. I knew this years ago they’re making foods cause cancers and they admitted it. Already they have done to oranges become GMO now and I knew about this too about s5 years before they introduced in the market.
Wow with the billions of people eating gmos daily isn’t it amazing how the population keeps growing with all of us infertile people. LOL, how dumb can you be?
Wow, you’re so dumb to know cancer rate has been sky rocket! Doctors has been saying about G MO are not safe for consumer! So you are a lousy liar! Ha Ha Ha…….
Grow up, you’re acting like immature kid who want attack the truth messenger because you have nothing better things to do, little chimp. Good bye!
Lol, write again next time you visit from fantasy land! Oh and do try and actually bring proof to back up your claims. Of course you never do since it simply doesn’t exist.
No body like you because you’re an evil, deceitful liar and trolling here.
And still yet you have not been able to disprove anything I say. Lol, I don’t think that anyone should listen to me, but find the truth out for themselves.
Jun 15, 2016 GMOs, โBiggest Fraud In The History Of Scienceโ โ Some โQuestions And Answersโ
In an ideal world, glyphosate would be taken off the commercial market due to its obvious adverse effects on human health and the environment. In such a world, the EU would at the same time be facilitating policies that would ensure a major shift towards more sustainable agricultural practices.
July 15, 2016 Legislation in Alaska requiring labeling of GMO salmon will now be reversed by the Senate’s fake labeling bill
Prior to the recent approval of the Monsanto-backed GMO fake labeling bill, Alaskan law required labels on all products containing genetically engineered salmon. As laid out in the Biotechnology Labeling Solutions Act, the new legislation “would allow the Agriculture Department to determine which foods qualify as genetically modified and let companies choose the method of disclosing genetically modified organism (GMO) ingredients to consumers.”
Yes. The Roberts-Stabenow anti-labeling bill overthrew ca. 100 existing laws in other states as well as Vermont’s excellent labeling law – the law we want, need, and had demanded.
It is no longer and has not been for some time a government by the people. Several presidents beginning with Nixon with his line item veto have been insidiously undermining the constitution that the founding fathers went through so much effort to write in an attempt to protect this country from tyranny. It has become an oligarchy, a corporate oligarchy controlled by a handful of wealthy families. “We the people” no longer have representation!
That also explains this as well. July 20th, 2016 Russia dominates global wheat market
For the second year running, Russia is the world’s top wheat producer with exports of 22.5 million metric tons of grain this year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Russia has won contracts to exports 120,000 tons of wheat to Egypt. In the fall, as soon as the new crop is harvested, Russia will start supplying wheat to China, its low-price strategy which has increased its market share.