FDA Won’t Allow Food to Be Labeled Free of Genetic Modification: Report

[depakid]

'Extra labeling only confuses the consumer,' biotech spokesman says

That the Food and Drug Administration is opposed to labeling foods that are genetically modified is no surprise anymore, but a report in the Washington Post indicates the FDA won't even allow food producers to label their foods as being free of genetic modification.

In reporting that the FDA will likely not require the labeling of genetically modified salmon if it approves the food product for consumption, the Post's Lyndsey Layton notes that the federal agency "won't let conventional food makers trumpet the fact that their products don't contain genetically modified ingredients."

The agency warned the dairy industry in 1994 that it could not use "Hormone Free" labeling on milk from cows that are not given engineered hormones, because all milk contains some hormones.

It has sent a flurry of enforcement letters to food makers, including B&G Foods, which was told it could not use the phrase "GMO-free" on its Polaner All Fruit strawberry spread label because GMO refers to genetically modified organisms and strawberries are produce, not organisms.

It told the maker of Spectrum Canola Oil that it could not use a label that included a red circle with a line through it and the words "GMO," saying the symbol suggested that there was something wrong with genetically engineered food.

"This to me raises questions about whose interest the FDA is protecting," House Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) told the Post. Kucinich has repeatedly introduced bills in the House that would require the labeling of genetically modified foods.

More: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/09/19-0

[DJ13]

1. Monsanto and ADM say thank you

[golddigger]

2. Change That Matters!

[peacetalksforall]

3. Is making a list and carrying it with me labeling? How far are they going to

take this? Our government is an arm of the giant corporations. I'm with the tea baggers - let's take back our government.

Oh wait, did they say take back our country or take back our government?

I'm being sarcastic, but I am really upset.

This is blatant. It is in our face pro-indutry (theirs), not pro-people.

Now we have to listen to lectures about nothing being wrong with it? If you're from Canada, France, Germany, Italy - be thankful.

This is the country of bio-engineered people so that we become submissive and stop our protesting and blindly accept everything - their wars, their robbing us, their lies.

We will be fancy serfs - science will have touched us. Their science designed for us. Meet the new GODs.

[customerserviceguy]

4. While I'm perfectly fine with GM foods

I do agree with those who want to see labelling. I consider genetic modification to be of the same sort of thing as has been accomplished with selective breeding, only on a quicker scale. However, those who want to pay more for non-GM food (like they do for 'organic') are free to do so.

[Grinchie]

5. Nice of you to give the people that actually know that GMO's are Dangerous to ask for a label.

Unfortunately, it is you lackadaisical incomprehension of the science behind GMO's that taints the argument in favor of GMO's everywhere.

That's the whole plan anyway, because once these novel strands of DNA are incorporated into other organism, through pathways that the scientists didn't even think of, it will be too late to "Recall" them for whatever defect they mey carry.

The depth of youur thought on this subject is parochial in it's simplicity. After you actually read up on this stuff, you will definately not be perfectly fine with GM foods.

Does that mean that you think they are better than the food that was grown during the days of Leonardo da Vinci? That food seemed to be adequate for all of the miracles he created..

Why is it that everything the is cheap as dirt is all GMO? It actually costs the farmers more for for seed..

[customerserviceguy]

7. I'm just not a Luddite when it comes to these kinds of things

But I respect the rights of everyone to practice their own belief structure, and that includes having knowledge about what is 'kosher' for them, and what is not.

[Bluenorthwest]

10. Your previous statement was just wrong

So you are not a Luddite, or the opposite, you are simply misinformed. This is not about 'belief' this is about botany, a science. The things you said in your first post are incorrect, you are making false assumptions. GMO foods are an entirely new and different item on the scene, not at all like cross breeding and that sort of thing, not at all. GMO foods halt the seed cycle that is the chain of life by which we have lived as a speices.
I reccomend gaining some factual information and making informed decisions based on that information, not upon 'beliefs' and false assumptions. This is not an area for 'faith based' thinking.

[customerserviceguy]

8. Dupe delete

[roody]

6. Organic is GMO-free.

[customerserviceguy]

9. Yeah, I know

I use it as an example of someone having a belief that one food substance is better than another, even though they have the same nutritional values, which one is willing to pay more for.

People who fear GMO's can pay whatever they want to for the non-GMO product, and I support labeling things accordingly to accommodate their belief systems.

[Bluenorthwest]

11. Organics taste better, look better

And behave better as ingredients. I can tell an organic egg from a factory egg in the shell, in a bowl, from across the room. I can tell in a baked good when the eggs are natural and when they are Industrial. Mass growth tomatoes are hardly even tomatoes.
Organics are just better food. Food the way it was meant to be raised. Oh, lord, and the meat! I can smell 'factory' meat as it cooks. The organic stuff, from up the street, a whole different smell, far better flavor, the works.
I understand that many people do not mind if their food is not of the finest quality possible. Many can not tell quality when they see it. I grew up eating natural home raised foods, and the stuff at the market, that's for suckers. Baesd on the quality of the product. On taste, texture and appearance.
I've never met anyone who thinks that organics have higher nutritional values. That is not even the point of organics. The point is quality, and things that are not present in them, which should not be present in foodstuffs. Not about 'more nutrition' but about 'less impurity' and far higher quality, a better apple, an apple that is just an apple, not an apple plus some other substances left over from the 'process'.
Then of course there are the other issues, such as labor and land use. Sweat shop foods are not my cup of tea, as both of my parents came up in the world via farm work, picking and packing even. So how that food came to be is also important. To me, that is.

[avaistheone1]

14. GMO corn and soybeans make sick.

I have a cast iron stomach and that GMO stuff makes me sick.

[customerserviceguy]

15. And you're entitled to feel that way

I feel the same way about my microbrew beer, and am willing to pay more for it than the yellow fizzy stuff.

I've just never noticed a difference between something labeled organic, and a high-quality product that does not label itself that way. Wait, "organic" ale is not quite as tasty as the ale that is not so labeled. Maybe the organic brewers will catch up some day.

[Nordmadr]

12. I have been concerned about the ever increasing number of farm

fields around here growing genetically modified corn.

They are everywhere.

[felix_numinous]

13. Bastards.

I do not trust corporate entities to genetically alter my food. They have betrayed my trust enough times already, unfortunately. I think the best thing you can do for your health is seek out the cleanest water possible and the cleanest organic food and meat sources. Period.