DESPITE broad scientific consensus that genetically modified (GMO) food is safe, there has been a proliferation of product labels seeking to cash in on consumer concerns, according to University of California Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy founding director, Professor Pamela Ronald.
Professor Pamela Ronald told the TropAg conference in Brisbane there has been a proliferation of product labels seeking to cash in on consumer concerns about GMOs …. consumers were being duped by some of the GMO labeling on foods in the United States at the moment.
“A common one is ‘non-GMO project verified’ which has been applied to many products, including those that would never even be considered for genetic modification,” she said.
“That label is a nice marketing advantage because you can mark up your product as ‘non-GMO’ …. This label is on 50,000 products, most of which have no counterparts that are genetically engineered. In about eight years, it has documented US$26 billion in annual sales.
“What is very disappointing is not only are consumers paying more for something that is meaningless, but also many farmers are now moving to so-called non-GMO crops and going back to older technologies where they are spraying older and more toxic compounds.
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