In early May, Vermont governor Peter Shumlin signed a bill into law that requires a label for any foods produced with genetic engineering. At this point, most in the anti-GMO movement endorse the view that these crops pose risks to human health and the environment. Though hundreds of independent research groups and many long-term safety studies support the conclusion that genetic engineering is no more risky than other approaches to breeding, they consider all this evidence part of a vast corporate conspiracy.
So it goes without saying that many food activists greeted the signing of the bill with joy and fanfare. After all, the bill aims to satisfy consumer yearning for assurance that our food is safe to eat and that it was produced in a sustainable manner. But the generic “produced with genetic engineering” label mandated by the Vermont bill won’t provide this information.
If Vermont had honestly assessed genetically engineered crops, the bill would have indicated that there is not a single credible report of dangerous health effects from GMOs and that there is no science-based reason to single out the resulting foods for mandatory labeling. The bill makes a clumsy attempt to define “genetic engineering,” but few who take the trouble to read it will be able to follow the logic. This is not surprising, because everything we eat has been genetically modified in some manner.
Should you care? After all, any individual consumer can either pay heed to a label or ignore it. But political campaigns that reject science can have devastating consequences. The antivaccination movement claimed a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the appearance of autism and bowel disease. Ever since, there have been outbreaks of measles and whooping cough in certain localities where parents choose not to vaccinate their children.
Similarly, we already see consumers, fearful that GMOs are unsafe, paying higher prices for products labeled “non-GMO,” which provides an incentive for farmers to return to older, more toxic, and more expensive management practices. GMO scaremongering campaigns have also harmed the poor.
So let’s label food, but let’s do it right. Instead of adding a general label about the process with which a plant variety was developed, let’s use labels that provide details about how the crop was grown and what is actually in the food. Let’s apply these labels to all foods, so consumers can make comparisons and draw their own conclusions about the risks and benefits of each seed or farming practice.
Read the full, original article: How Scare Tactics on GMO Foods Hurt Everybody
