Foodies everywhere – rejoice! Finally, your favorite chefs are adding some heat to GMO labeling efforts. A host of celebrity chefs have taken to Capital Hill to urge members of Congress to support legislation that would require the labeling of genetically modified foods. While it isn’t an effort to ban them – it’s a great start.
Tom Colicchio who co-founded the Gramercy Tavern in New York City, José Andrés, part of ThinkFoodGroup, and Sam Talbot, among other celebrity chefs have delivered a petition to support Americans in their right to know exactly what is in their food.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., an organic farmer who joined the chefs in their meetings with lawmakers, said:
“Americans need to know, on a very basic level, what they’re eating. It’s critically important; it shouldn’t be guesswork. It’s truly a question of basic transparency.”
Colicchio, founder of Craft and Colicchio & Sons restaurants and a judge on Bravo’s popular show, “Top Chef,” says the chefs’ involvement in the GMO issue cuts to the core of the culinary industry.
Chefs count on personal relationships with organic farmers to purchase choice cuts of meat and fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs to make their meals stand out on discerning palates. Chefs need to be able to trust that the food they are getting is not genetically modified – with no GM corn, soybeans, canola, GMO growth hormones used to fatten up dairy cows, and other questionable ingredients. This can only happen with labeling. Chefs feel they have an obligation to the people they serve food to – to give them the best food which hasn’t been tinkered with.
Talbot, a former “Top Chef” contestant and author says:
“When you come into a restaurant, it’s a chef’s responsibility to make sure that we know what we are putting on your plate, [and] you’re not going to get sick from [it]. We’re in direct contact with consumers on a daily basis, and they’re saying, ‘Hey, what’s in our food? Is this local? Is it organic?’”
Read: 57 Million Americans Warn UK About GMO Dangers
Oregon, Colorado, Washington state and California have all been the victim of Monsanto’s false campaigning, resulting in failed GMO labeling measures. Though there is a recount in Oregon at present, and biotech is fighting to reverse anti-GMO laws in Maui and Vermont.
There currently exists a bi-partisan effort to introduce a bill to the FDA that would mandate the labeling of all foods containing GMOs. This should stand for grocers and food manufacturers, as well as restaurants, since even those who try to avoid GMOs are subject to an onslaught of them when they dine out.
Tester commented:
“Often times when these initiatives get on the ballot, there are millions and millions spent [to defeat them], and it’s done for the sole purpose of folks not wanting to be accountable.”
Chef Colicchio added:
“The food movement has been around for 15, 20 years, but it’s only recently that chefs and consumers … are starting to look at policies that affect what goes on a plate. . .We’re not asking for a skull and crossbones; we’re not asking for a label in front that says ‘danger’ … and we’re not asking to take GMOs off the market. We’re asking for clear and precise labeling … It confuses consumers, the lack of transparency.”
Who cares how many Michelin stars your restaurant has won after all, if it is serving up genetically modified toxicity.
FORGET LABELING…..A total outright BAN on gmo tech is the only way to safe guard our food supply. Why? genetic drift. The chefs need to brush up on GMO pseudo-science and what the real dangers are of this ghastly tech.
You Don’t legislate crime You Prosecute it PERIOD. Labeling gmo’s only serves to legitimize them. Burn the crops storm the stores and destroy the product imprison anyone who profits from the production, possession and sale of poisoned food. You are wasting time better spent stopping geoengineering and mitigating it’s affects of which you are rapidly running out of time to do. Pull your heads out of whatever hole it’s in and get your priorities in order. You are the only saviour you’ve been waiting for. Will You show up? So far it looks like the answer is no You won’t. You will chase your tails into oblivion. You are the zombie apocalypse. Will you want labels on your neighbors when you turn to eat them? News flash they are already tainted just as you are. You’d better wake up and choose your battles more wisely because You are one catastrophe away from cannibalism. Need to read that again? ONE. The food supply is drying up real fast. This is no time for personal pet issues and “choices”. When cross contamination of gmo crops eradicate non-gmo crops labels are meaningless anyway. Think about what you are doing. You are working to eradicate non-gmo food by doing anything other than total destruction of gmo’s and that makes You willing participants in Our collective demise and You will be accountable for having done so. When the food is gone I’m coming to eat you labelers first. I hear the babies are the tastiest feed them well please fat is where the flavor is.
GMOs need to be banned! All this labeling nonsense is wasting precious time that we don’t have. By the time anything happens all the crops will be contaminated! Gene drift can happen as far as 2 miles. BAN GMOS NOW!