{"id":971,"date":"2011-09-30T13:13:43","date_gmt":"2011-09-30T18:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/realfoodhouston.com\/?p=971"},"modified":"2011-09-30T13:13:43","modified_gmt":"2011-09-30T18:13:43","slug":"gmo-foods-should-be-labeled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/2011\/09\/30\/gmo-foods-should-be-labeled\/","title":{"rendered":"GMO Foods Should Be Labeled"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a rally<\/a> in Austin this Sunday, October 2, to support the requirement to label foods that contain GMOs. The Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance <\/a>(FARFA)\u00a0is supporting the rally.\u00a0 FARFA makes a good point about the FDA’s\u00a0having allowed\u00a0GM crops to be introduced in the food supply without requiring\u00a0labeling.\u00a0 The FDA claimed that GM crops were “substantially equivalent” to non-GM crops.\u00a0 As FARFA says, “This finding of substantial equivalence [by the FDA]\u00a0is absurd.\u00a0 If there truly were no significant differences, then companies like Monsanto and DuPont could not have gotten patents.\u00a0”\u00a0 That’s right, Monsanto and DuPont have patents<\/em> on the GMO foods\u00a0that the FDA\u00a0claims are really equivalent to non-GMO foods.\u00a0 Somebody must be mistaken–either the foods are essentially the same, hence no patent could be granted, or they are substantially different, therefore justifying a patent.<\/p>\n

Concern about GMO labeling is growing around the world.\u00a0 Here are some recent news:<\/p>\n

The Maui News reports <\/a>that Hawaii is considering a requirement to label foods containing GMOs; however, The Maui News does not recommend requiring the labeling.\u00a0 Their recommendation appears to be primarily based on FDA statements made to Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber in 2002 when Oregon was considering a similar requirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Oregon measure was overwhelmingly defeated<\/a> in 2002, probably because companies including Monsanto, DuPont, General Mills, and Heinz spent $5.5 million to campaign against it.\u00a0 The factor that may have most influenced voters was the emphasis on the potential\u00a0increases in the price of foods caused by the the labeling requirements.\u00a0\u00a0The Maui News\u00a0lists several points made by the FDA in a letter to Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber in 2002.\u00a0\u201cis not aware of any information or data that would suggest that any genetically engineered foods that have been allowed for human use are not as safe as conventional foods\u201d and \u201cThat such a label would be out of place and might be perceived as a “warning,” giving a false impression.\u201d\u00a0 It is disturbing that Hawaii would use statements made in 2002 to justify a recommendation against labeling when there is much more evidence today of the potential and real harm being done by GMO products.<\/p>\n

Apparently people in Oregon are still concerned about GMOs in foods.\u00a0 There was another bill,\u00a0House\u00a0 Bill 3346<\/a>, in committee as of June 2011, that would make GM foods subject to labeling requirements.<\/p>\n

California may have the opportunity in 2012 <\/a>to vote on a GMO labeling measure. Many groups are ready to get the required signatures (800,000) to be on the ballot.\u00a0 The groups include The Institute for Responsible Technology, The Organic Consumers Union\u2019s Millions Against Monsanto campaign<\/a>, and the National Organization for Women.\u00a0 Policy established in California is very important because it is often a precursor for what happens in other states.<\/p>\n

The Montreal Gazette reports<\/a> that in Canada, groups are preparing a petition asking for mandatory labeling of genetically modified food.\u00a0 The effort has been prompted because foods containing GMOs have been found in the food supply\u00a0unlabeled.\u00a0 Seven years ago, a Canadian parliamentary commission recommended obligatory labeling of genetically modified foods, but, apparently\u00a0 the government never applied the recommendations.\u00a0 The groups want the obligatory labeling recommendations to be adopted next year and want the government to increase support for organic farming and to tighten approval procedures for GM foods.\u00a0 The current Canadian GMO labeling program is voluntary.<\/p>\n

GlobalResearch is\u00a0reporting<\/a> that India is suing Monsanto for \u201cbiopiracy.\u201d\u00a0 The example given is for eggplant, called brinjal in India.\u00a0 There are more than 2,500 different varieties of brinjal grown in India.\u00a0 Monsanto has been trying to market its genetically engineered brinjal called Bt brinjal.\u00a0 Public outcry has led to the Indian government to ban Bt Brinjal, but apparently \u201cMonsanto is still stealing native crops, including brinjal, and quietly working on GM varieties of them in test fields, which is a clear violation of India\u2019s Biological Diversity Act (BDA).\u201d\u00a0\u00a0There are reports that\u00a0Indian farmers have destroyed some of Monsanto\u2019s GM test fields.\u00a0 It looks like India is way ahead of the USA which is not only not<\/em> banning GM foods but is actively promoting<\/em> them, by calling them substantially equivalent and refusing to require labeling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FARFA has much more information<\/a> about Bt brinjal in India and other GMO news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a rally in Austin this Sunday, October 2, to support the requirement to label foods that contain GMOs. The Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA)\u00a0is supporting the rally.\u00a0 FARFA makes a good point about the FDA’s\u00a0having allowed\u00a0GM crops to …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16,11,63,59,19],"tags":[48,26,25,405,31,45],"class_list":["post-971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-freedom","category-food-rights","category-food-safety","category-gmos","category-real-food","tag-farfa","tag-food-freedom-2","tag-food-rights-2","tag-gmos","tag-sustainable-farming","tag-traditional-food-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p70SEj-fF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=971"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":992,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/971\/revisions\/992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}