In 49 countries around the world, including all of Europe, people have the opportunity of knowing whether or not they are eating food which contains genetically engineered ingredients. In the United States, we don't. That is why I have introduced, along with Sen. Barbara Boxer, an amendment to the agriculture bill which will give states the right to require labels on food products which are genetically engineered.
All over this country people are becoming more conscious about the foods they eat and serve their kids. When a mother goes to the store and purchases food for her child, she has the right to know what she is feeding her family.
Poll after poll during the past decade showed that nine out of 10 Americans agree that food with genetically engineered ingredients should say so on the label.
Almost 1 million Californians signed a petition to get labeling of genetically engineered food on this November's ballot. They want the right to know what is in their foods.
Vermont state legislators this year tried to pass a bill that would have required foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients to disclose that information on the label. There was a huge public response. The Vermont House Agriculture Committee heard from 111 witnesses in favor of the bill. Hundreds more showed up at the Statehouse to show their support.
Of course, there are those who disagree. Monsanto, one of the world's leading producers of genetically engineered foods, doesn't like the idea. It is also the world's largest producer of the herbicide Roundup as well as so-called "Roundup-ready" seeds that have been genetically engineered to resist the pesticide. So, once it seemed like the bill was headed for passage, Monsanto threatened to sue. The strong-arm tactic worked. Despite passing out of the House Agriculture Committee by a vote of 9 to 1, the bill went nowhere.
This week in The United States Senate we have an opportunity to affirm the right of California and Vermont and all states to label food that contains genetically engineered ingredients. Simply put, this amendment gives people the right to know. It says that a state, if its Legislature so chooses, may require that any food or beverage containing a genetically engineered ingredient offered for sale in that state have a label that says so.
The amendment also requires that the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and secretary of U.S. Department of Agriculture to report to Congress within two years on the percentage of food and beverages in the United States that contain genetically engineered ingredients.
There are strong precedents for labeling. The FDA already requires the labeling of over 3,000 ingredients, additives, and processes. If you want to know if your food contains gluten, aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, trans-fats or MSG, you simply read the ingredients listed on the label. The FDA also requires labeling for major food allergens such as peanuts, wheat, shellfish and others.
Unlike people in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Brazil, China, Russia, New Zealand and other countries where labels are required, Americans don't know if the food they eat has been genetically altered.
There was concern among scientists at the FDA in the 1990s that genetically engineered foods could have new and different risks such as hidden allergens, increased plant-toxin levels and the potential to hasten the spread of antibiotic-resistant disease. Those concerns were largely brushed aside. Today, unanswered questions remain. In the United States, resolutions calling for labeling of genetically engineered foods were passed by the American Public Health Association and the American Nurses Association. In Canada, a landmark independent study by Canadian doctors published in the peer-reviewed journal Reproductive Toxicology found that toxin from soil bacterium engineered into corn to kill pests was present in the bloodstream of 93 percent of pregnant women. There is a great need for additional research because there have never been mandatory human clinical trials of genetically engineered crops, no tests for carcinogenicity or harm to fetuses, no long-term testing for human health risks, no requirement for long-term testing on animals, and only limited allergy testing. What this means is that, for all intents and purposes, the long-term health study of genetically engineered food is being done on all of the American people.
The Consumers Right to Know about Genetically Engineered Food Amendment is about allowing states to honor the wishes of their residents and allowing consumers to know what they're eating. Americans want this information. It is time that Congress affirms the right of states to give it to them.
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Obama quoted 06-24-12:
"We answer to the American people"
Didn't President Obama promise the American people to label all our foods containing GMOs before his election 2008? Has he broken his promise? Can we trust Obama to keep any promises he makes in this campaign?
Over 90% Of Americans were then and still are against GMOS.
http://fooddemocracynow.org/blog/2011/oct/3/obama_...
The big question is: Why did Obama lie to the American people so grossly just to get elected?
There has been nothing done on this promise. Not even a mention of any action unless this is being kept secret.
Will Obama do it again in the upcoming 2012 election?
While I hear congress is siding with Monsanto on this, I would say to the public that expanding awareness is very important on this topic. The two really big cash crops (millions of acres) on this are Roudup Ready, which are plants that grow when doused in weedkiller, and BT, which splices in part of the DNA of a parasitic soil bacteria, turning the plant itself into a pesticide factory in the insect's digestion.
Feeding the world several times over was something the US could do with the agricultural advancements of the 70s, in bushels per acre. If someone says to you, "well we have to feed the world somehow", I'm not buying it. There is no evidence of increases in agricultural yields. Parties argue to both sides, but either way splits hairs to do so. Meanwhile, Monsanto farming practices over time are wiping out the soil bacteria, they are producing super (unkillable) weeds, and the increasing cost of the seeds (all terminator-types), the herbicides and the pesticides are putting farmers out of business. In India and South Africa, for example, tends of thousands of farmers have committed suicide with greedy agricultural ministries cowing to GMOs for cash crops - to produce tanker-fulls of the stuff for biofuel and animal feed. What little studies have been freely conducted by the lucky scientists who have gotten a hold of these seeds have been startling (all the animals died).
F/F
GE introduces Bt toxins into food, and now in our bloodstreams. That was never a hybrid of anything found naturally.
http://www.realfoodhouston.com/2012/02/20/study-finds-that-ge-toxins-damage-human-cells/
http://www.3news.co.nz/GE-toxins-found-in-foetuses-research-shows/tabid/423/articleID/214343/Default.aspx
No wonder we have so many suck*rs in this country!!!!
affecting fields not growing such produce. Nature constantly modifies all living things as life is just
an ever evolving process. If we err along the way, so does nature. Our fate is to move forward.
E. coli O104:H4 A Newly Emergent Pathogen
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/E_coli_O104_H4_Newly_Emergent_Pathogen.php
E. coli 0157:H7 and Genetic Engineering
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/ecoli.php
http://rt.com/usa/news/monsanto-crops-biotech-genetically-325/
No across-the-board health benefits have been shown for products that are "organic" approved any more than have been for Kosher approved. Consumers choose based on belief.
Absent any proof of health benefit, neither the "organic" nor the Kosher producers could demand that their competition at its own expense label its products as non-organic or non-Kosher.
Every crop has the possibility of greater nutrition or greater production via genetic manipulation. For that reason every food producer except for the "organic" ones is considering GMO varieties.
GMO labeling is a back-door way for "organic" producers to get “non-organic” labeling.
One might ask “what is the harm” in labeling.
I still remember the 1950s when everyone from Hollywood producers down to the corner store was competing to be “more free” of communist sympathizers. Much of that “competition” involved spreading rumors that a competitor had a commie on the payroll and pulling a name out of a hat. Any company that did not label itself as “commie free” was assumed to be infiltrated. It is amazing that Bernie Sanders does not see the parallel.
Until the “organic” crowd comes up with some real science, non-GMO vs. GMO labeling is the same as being “commie free”.
Organic foods are labelled as such. Kosher foods are labelled as such. This bill is about labeling foods. I fail to see why anyone would object. Unless of course they are afraid that the consumer will stop buying these products because of the label.
And your claim that all crops that are not labelled as either kosher or organic are GMO is not true.
And your claim that GMO foods have the possibility of greater nutrition could be true, but the reality seems vastly different. The nutrition of our food supply has gone down drastically over the years and has continued the same decline with GMO crops. And of course there are studies that show that production hasn't increased because of GMO crops as well. But we know that certain companies have made billions off GMO, while eliminating small producers and putting them out of work.
The reason the human race has advanced so far in every aspect of life from health to technology is because of advances in agriculture. Crops grown today have evolved from thousands of years of hybridization of crops that were simply precursers to todays GMO technology and are nothing like produce grown and consumed thousands of years ago. Were it not for the advances in agricultural technology, civilizations would never have developed and we'd still be beating each other over the heads with stick and rocks.
And when the hell did they start growing potatoes in dirt? Yuck!
Organic farming has been done for centuries. It is a tried and true way of maintaining a healthy nation. The introduction of GMOs is quite recent. Also quite recent is the mass epidemics of diseases like obesity and cancer. This is no coincidence. We are poisoning the world. We are killing our own race. It is time to wake up.