Why Label Genetically Modified Foods? - The Farmer's Daughter USA

I *might* be okay with labels
if this is how they read.

I found a short editorial in response to Whole Foods announcement that it will require all GMO products to contain a label by 2018.

As the New York Times asks, why the heck is that necessary?

The answer I’ve given repeatedly: only because anti-GMO groups, who are so blatantly anti-science, want to scare consumers.

There is absolutely no scientific evidence to support the notion that GMOs are dangerous, unhealthy, bad for the environment, or any different than non-GMO food. But some folks, including those at Whole Foods, want to ignore that big elephant the room (commonly referred to as “science”) and keep telling people that GMOs are bad.

Do you think they ever feel bad for lying or deceiving people? Certainly what they’re doing is unethical.

But, as I first mentioned, the NYTimes started to point this out. They didn’t quite get to the point, but I’m glad to see they at least asked the obvious question: Why label anyway?

“Whole Foods Market caused a stir last week when it announced that it would require all products sold in its stores in the United States and Canada to carry labels indicating whether they contain genetically modified ingredients by 2018. Food advocacy groups hailed its action as a possible “game changer” that would push the entire food industry to adopt similar labels.
Any private company has the right to require its suppliers to meet labeling standards it chooses to set, and consumers have a right to know what’s in the food they are buying. But there is no reliable evidence that genetically modified foods now on the market pose any risk to consumers.

The Food and Drug Administration says it has no basis for concluding that foods developed by bioengineering techniques present different or greater safety concerns than foods developed by traditional plant breeding. Nevertheless, bills are pending in several states to require mandatory labeling of genetically modified ingredients (a referendum to compel such labeling was narrowly defeated in California last November). For now, there seems little reason to make labeling compulsory.

Consumers can already find products free of genetically engineered ingredients, with labels voluntarily placed by the manufacturers.

For those who want to avoid such ingredients, the surest way is to buy products certified as “organic” under federal standards. They contain no genetically engineered ingredients, or at most inadvertent trace amounts.” (Why Label Genetically Modified Food?)