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disclosure. The FDA has the authority under the Federal Food and Drug Cosmetic Act to implement mandatory
and costly for food manufacturers. This, however, is untrue. According to Mr. Druker, “The various states which have already drafted laws for mandatory GMO labeling have es- tablished similar requirements that are comparable from state to state.” Furthermore, label-changing is routinely done by the food industry for new fla- vors, ingredients or a varietyofothermar- keting reasons. The food industry uses higher food costs as a scare tactic in an effort to manipulate the consumer against
GMO labeling.
Absence of a mandatory
GMO labeling system has also had an adverse effect on international trade. More than 60 countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, and the entire European Union, either re- quire labeling or have imposed bans on the production and sale of GMOs. Lack of action on the part of the U.S. has created import and export problems with those countries. There have been instances when foods, or products containing non- approved crops, are refused entry at inter- national ports for being in violation of the
receiving countries’ laws.(4)
Is Our Right To Know Endangered?
It is widely known that the strong major- ity of Americans favor labeling of geneti- cally engineered foods, and support for labeling is growing.(5) We cannot accept it
labeling just they have with many other foods.”(2)
However,
the FDA’s
position is
that “the use
of genetic
engineering
in the develop-
ment of a food
is and of itself not
material information,”
stated Susan Mayne, director
of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the FDA.
According to Steven M. Druker, public interest attorney and the author of Altered Genes, Twisted Truth(3), the fact that GE foods are even on the market is in vio- lation of federal law. “These foods are
all on the U.S. market illegally,” says Druker. “If federal food safety law were properly enforced all GE foods would need to be recalled and then required to have their safety confirmed through rigorous test- ing via the formal food additive petition pro- cess. Genetically engineered foods should be regarded as high risk foods that have been inadequately tested.
Their developers have shunned the type of rigorous scientific experimentation that is necessary in order to demonstrate that they are safe.”
Opponents of mandatory GMO label- ing argue that individual state laws would create a “patchwork effect” throughout the country, confusing to the consumer
24 Harvest 2015
as
We cannot accept it as “politics as usual” when our federal government pushes legislation in the opposite direction of the will of its citizens, especially not when it is our food system at stake.
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