It's very clear that the U.S. public wants genetically engineered, or GE, foods labeled. Since its launch in October of last year, the "Just Label It" campaign has garnered more than 900,000 signatures to its petition asking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require any food containing GE ingredients to be labeled. That's more than any other FDA petition in history.
What is GMO?
This year is the 30th anniversary of the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which first hit the scene way back in 1981. And Monsanto, Syngenta, and other chemical companies that develop GMOs marked the occasion with successful U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approvals of genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa (otherwise known as hay), sugar beets, and corn grown to make ethanol—approvals that could seriously threaten the growth of the $25 billion-per-year organic foods industry. And it's not just the organic food industry at stake. Genetically engineered foods have never been tested for safety by anyone other than the biotechnology companies that make and sell them, and evidence from organic groups like The Organic Center have shown that they have actually increased farmers' reliance on pesticides by as much as 200 percent—despite repeated promises that plants genetically engineered to produce their own pesticides would lower reliance on toxic chemicals. Gary Hirshberg, CEO of the organic dairy company Stonyfield Farms, has said that genetically engineered foods "make guinea pigs of us all," and here's why:
THE DETAILS: GMOs have been under development since 1981, when researchers at a university in Belgium discovered that they could successfully transfer a gene from one species and insert it into a totally different species, explained Andrew Kimbrell, director of the anti-GMO Center for Food Safety. Thirteen years later, we had the Flavr-Savr Tomato, genetically engineered to delay ripening and stay fresh longer by the addition of fish genes. Ironically, that was the first GMO product that was labeled in stores, and people not only didn't like the taste, they also were opposed to the idea of GMO foods. The tomato was pulled off the market three years after it was introduced. Since 1996, Kimbrell said, so many GE varieties of corn, soy, canola, and cotton have been introduced that now 80 percent of corn and 90 percent of the other three crops are now genetically modified, many to resist applications of Roundup, the trade name for the toxic pesticide glyphosate.
Congress
And it looks like Congress, at least, is listening. On Monday, 55 Republican and Democratic politicians from the U.S. House and Senate signed a letter in support of the Just Label It petition and supporting the 92 percent of Americans who, survey after survey shows, want labeling of GE foods.
In their letter, the congressmen and senators write:
"At issue is the fundamental right consumers have to make informed choices about the food they eat…The agency currently requires over 3,000 other ingredients, additives, and processes to be labeled; providing basic information doesn't confuse the public, it empowers them to make choices. Absent labeling, Americans are unable to choose for themselves whether to purchase GE foods…. We urge you to fully review the facts, law, and science, and side with the American public by requiring the labeling of genetically engineered foods as is done in nearly 50 countries throughout the world."
GE foods have gone unlabeled for so long because when the FDA was reviewing their safety back in the '80s and '90s, biotech companies convinced the agency that GE foods were fundamentally no different than non-GE foods. However, the FDA's own scientists in 1996 said that, based on the available evidence, fiddling with the DNA of a crop could increase people's food allergies to that crop and lower its nutritional value. A recent study found that genetically modified plant genes can even survive in your digestive tract.
Fifty-Five Members Of Congress Call On FDA To Require Labeling Of Genetically Engineered Foods
The 45 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives to join the letter are: Peter DeFazio (OR-4), Richard Hanna (NY-24), Dennis Kucinich (OH-10), George Miller, (CA-7), Louise Slaughter(NY-28), Keith Ellison (MN-5), Raul Grijalva (AZ-7), Peter Welch (VT-At Large), Hansen Clarke (MI-13), Earl Blumenauer, (OR-3), Lloyd Doggett (TX-25), Anna Eshoo (CA-14), Sam Farr (CA-17), Maurice Hinchey (NY-22), Rush Holt (NJ-12), Chellie Pingree (ME-1), Jim McDermott WA-7), Madeleine Bordallo (GU-At Large), James Moran (VA-8), John Olver (MA-1), Jared Polis (CO-2), Charles Rangel (NY-15), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-1), Pete Stark (CA-13), Howard L. Berman (CA-28), Robert Brady (PA-1), David Cicilline (RI-1), Yvette D. Clarke (NY-11), Steve Cohen (TN-9), Dianne DeGette (CO-1), Bob Filner (CA-5), Barney Frank (MA-4), Luis Gutierrez (IL-4), Janice Hahn (CA-36), Michael Honda (CA-15), Barbara Lee (CA-9), Zoe Lofgren (CA-16), James McGovern (MA-3), Jan Schakowsky (IL-9), Jackie Speier (CA-12), John Tierney (MA-6), Melvin L. Watt (NC-12), Lynn Woolsey (CA-6), Maxine Waters (CA-35), and Grace Napolitano (CA-38).
The 10 Members of the U.S. Senate to join the letter are: Barbara Boxer (CA), Patrick Leahy (VT), Bernie Sanders (VT), Daniel Akaka (HI), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Ron Wyden (OR), Mark Begich (AK), Jon Tester (MT), Richard Blumenthal (CT), and Jeff Merkley (OR).
The bicameral letter was supported by more than 70 businesses and organizations including Stonyfield Farm, the National Cooperative Grocers Association, the National Organic Coalition, Beanitos, Inc., Consumers Union, Organic Valley, PCC Natural Markets, the Organic Farming Research Foundation, and a number of farming and fishing associations.
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