This election season, there are initiatives on the ballot in Colorado and Oregon to label foods made with the help of genetic engineering, and there are legislative efforts to do the same in dozens of other states. I like the idea of GMO labeling, though for unorthodox reasons. But I do mourn all of the money, more money, effort, and political bandwidth that this issue is sponging up.
Most people I know who would like to label GMOs aren’t fixated on the biotechnology. The things they really care about are the amounts of pesticides we’re spraying, or the role of agribusiness in American farming, or some other larger issue that’s not limited to genetic engineering. The problem is that labeling GMOs is an ineffectual way of getting at most of these problems, and could make some of them worse.
The four problems that mandatory GMO labels won’t fix:
Issue 1: Too much technology in my food
Issue 2: Pesticides
Issue 3: Corporate control
Issue 4: Patents
Read full original article: 4 problems GMO labeling won’t solve
