Report: FDA won’t allow food to be labeled free of genetic modification

[Panaconda]

FDA won’t allow food to be labeled free of genetic modification: report

By Raw Story
Saturday, September 18th, 2010 -- 11:05 pm

'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."

...

"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.

David Edwards, director of animal biotechnology at the Biotechnology Industry Organization, told the Post that "extra labeling only confuses the consumer. ... It differentiates products that are not different. As we stick more labels on products that don't really tell us anything more, it makes it harder for consumers to make their choices."

...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/fda-labeled-free-modification/

If Kucinich doesn't know by now whose interest the FDA is protecting...

[Beaverhausen]

1. totally fucked up

[Mojambo]

2. Conventional food makers should sue. n/t

[glitch]

6. They really should. Because as it is now, we don't trust anybody but local.

Think about that from a national or international corporate perspective. If the other mega-corporations don't stand up they will follow the Monsanto path of "success" with consumers where they have to go to extraordinary measures to lega lly force people to purchase their products -- and how cost effective is that "marketing" working out for them?

[tabatha]

3. Are these Bush holdovers doing this?

I would hope that Obama would not approve of this.

[Panaconda]

4. Are you kidding?

Obama placed former Monsanto lobbyist Michael Taylor in the post of senior adviser to the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner on food safety.

Obama Puts GMO Booster in Charge of Food Safety

...

About Michael Taylor

Michael Taylor is a lawyer who has spent the last few decades moving through the revolving door between the employ of GMO-seed giant Monsanto and the FDA and USDA. Taylor is widely credited with ushering Monsanto's recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) through the FDA regulatory process and into the milk supply -- unlabeled. A Government Accounting Office (GAO) investigated whether Taylor had a conflict of interest and or had engaged in ethical misconduct in the approval of rBGH. The report's conclusion that there was no wrongdoing conflicted with the 30 pages of evidence that Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) described as proof that "the FDA allowed corporate influence to run rampant in its approval" of the drug.

Taylor is also responsible for the FDA's decision to treat genetically modified organisms as "substantially equivalent" to natural foods and therefore not require any safety studies. The "substantially equivalent" rule allowed the FDA to ignore evidence that genetically engineered foods, including soy, are in fact very different from natural foods and pose specific health risks.

In November 2008, Tom Philpott reported that Taylor was among President-Elect Obama's "team members" looking at energy and natural resources agencies, including USDA. In March 2009, President Obama announced the creation of a White House Food Safety Working Group to improve and coordinate the government's approach to the nationwide food safety crisis. Agri-Pulse reported that Taylor was "the leading candidate to staff the White House working group." While anti-GMO activists, including the Organic Consumers Association, protested -- OCA members sent 13,435 letters to USDA Sec. Tom Vilsack, who co-chairs the Food Safety Working Group with HHS Sec. Sebelius -- Taylor laid low. He was nowhere to be found at the White House Food Safety Working Group's May 13th Listening Session. But, the rumor proved true. On July 7, 2009, the FDA announced that Taylor had joined the agency as senior adviser to the commissioner.

...

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18635.cfm


Obama appoints Monsanto fox to guard food safety hen house

* August 23rd, 2009 10:49 pm ET

Former Monsanto vice president Michael Taylor may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history. Yet he has recently been appointed by Obama to be the U.S. food safety czar. It looks like we have yet another case of the fox guarding the hen house.

...

That man was Michael Taylor. He was Monsanto’s attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA in 1991. Not long after leaving the FDA in 1994, he became a Monsanto vice president and its chief lobbyist. Now, as of last month, he is back again as the FDA's new food czar. Like so many other similar positions, it's been a revolving door between big business and government.

If you read the FDA's announcement of Taylor's appointment as FDA commissioner at this link, you will not find any mention of his work with Monsanto. He is introduced there as "a nationally recognized food safety expert and research professor at George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services."

If you read Taylor's bio on the website of George Washington University available here, you will see mentioned that he once worked as Vice President for Public Policy at Monsanto Corp, yet you will read nothing about his avid support of GMOs, nor the fact that his private law practice mentioned in the bio was largely in service to Monsanto.

...

http://www.examiner.com/us-intelligence-in-national/obama-appoints-monsanto-fox-to-guard-food-safety-hen-house

[tabatha]

5. Jeeze, that has to be corrected.

[glitch]

7. Taylor is small potatoes. Vilsack, the head of Ag, is a major friend to Monsanto

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_15573.cfm

One of the original disappointments.

[SlipperySlope]

8. FDA position is that GE food is not meaningfully different from conventional.

The FDA position is that GE food is not meaningfully different from conventional food.

As long as they don't see a difference, they are going to resist mandatory labeling for what they see as a meaningless distinction.

Personally, I mostly think that FDA should allow the labeling because there are consumers who care. But I realize that isn't a good enough reason. There are probably lots of things that people would like to see labeled that we shouldn't bother.

The real question should probably be "is there any significant difference between food produced by this method versus another method, with regards to health or nutrition of the final product".

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. lulz

[ljm2002]

10. Outrageous.

How can anyone stop a producer from including true statements on their labels? It seems downright anti-business, for one thing. It also seems unconstitutional.