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. . .[S]ome politicians have a hard time setting priorities.
Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, in a recent interview called the question of labeling foods with ingredients from genetically engineered organisms “one of the top issues we’ve considered in the last 25 years.”
Even if that is an exaggeration, given the serious problems our country confronts–from terrorism and widespread underemployment to dysfunction in an alphabet soup of federal agencies–that statement should give all taxpayers pause. Senior lawmakers should not be diverting attention from real issues to dithering about non-problems cooked up by anti-technology activists.
On March 15, senators tasked with protecting the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness (to coin a phrase) of all Americans were discussing…grocery shopping. They argued heatedly about whether the federal government should require “genetically modified” food to carry an identifying label–a label that would be meaningless and utterly useless, but also misleading.
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. . . .Since the Senate failed to agree that day about what, if anything, should be done about labeling genetically engineered food, some lawmakers are still trying to find a solution to this non-problem–which has nothing to do with Americans’ health, safety or welfare. . . .
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We don’t need a bad compromise that misses the mark. What we need is a simple preemption of states’ and localities’ ability to contravene FDA’s regulations, which if not stopped could create a confusing national patchwork of requirements.
Read full, original post: The GMO Circus Comes To Congress And It’s Not Fun
