Maui GMO protest

[PaulW]

"even though it has no discernible nutrition"

What's the point of changing the labels if people don't know how to read them?

[Rob Tucker]

Paul,

Great post. Short and concise.

[gogould]

I was tracking out the labeling on a can of organic black beans the other day. Hmm. No place of origin for these beans. Logos for USDA Organic. Certified by Quality Assurance International. I looked for GMO labeling and found none. Found a Kosher label. I looked up QAI on the net. They label thousands of different items USDA Organic.
In that short flurry of research I found out that they label Chinese organic products based on the word of the Chinese. Inspectors that work for China are the only ones allowed.
I started to get into the enormous volume stream of food and food type products coming from China and stopped.
This business of labeling while there is good in it, it is not reliable to my mind. There are big loopholes. I know I am a little off topic. I will continue to buy organic and so on but have little faith in the system.

[OpenD]

quote:

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Originally posted by gogould

I was tracking out the labeling on a can of organic black beans the other day. Hmm. No place of origin for these beans. Logos for USDA Organic. Certified by Quality Assurance International. I looked for GMO labeling and found none.

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Nothing personal, but herein lies one of the big issues with food labeling... no matter how clearly the standards are written, people still misunderstand them and misuse the information that's listed. For example, Country of Origin (COO) labels are only required for foods produced outside the US. Since there was no COO info given, its producer is certifying that it is an American product.

Looking for GMO labeling, in this example, was a waste of time, because there is no such thing as GMO black beans. Even if there were, there's no requirement they be labeled as such. And being an Organic product, GMOs are not permitted anyways.

I'm surprised you didn't comment on the inventory/quality date, perhaps the most widely misunderstood aspect of food labeling. On canned goods the date shown has absolutely nothing to do with food safety, and a can of beans literally has no projected expiration, and can be good for decades. Yet a majority of people wrongly think that food past that date is unsafe and must be thrown away. Billions of dollars of perfectly good food gets discarded unnecessarily each year because consumers misunderstand this simple label.

Unrealistic portion size is a genuine issue, and the new format for nutrition labels that goes into effect later this year will attempt to correct that. For certain categories of food that have not been known for realistic portion sizes there will be new mandated sizes to be used in the nutritional assay.

But as I've said before, since there is no credible scientific proof that there are any health risks whatsoever associated with GMO foods, there's no legal justification for requiring GMO content to be labeled, just as there is no legal justification to require Kosher/Non-Kosher foods to be labeled. For those who are concerned as a matter of personal faith whether food is Kosher, or contains GMOs, then voluntary labeling and inspection programs are quite appropriate and recommended.

[TomK]

My suggestion is when you buy some food at Island Naturals you ask the cashier to explain the labelling for each item you're buying and if there isn't any, ask where your product came from, where it was grown or raised, how long has it been in the store, what chemicals it might contain or whether it might have been exposed to bacteria or a virus. Simple solution, it'll keep you safe and am sure everyone lining up behind you will enjoy the conversation as well. You can do this at KTA, Safeway and Foodland as well of course.

[OpenD]

Since someone is bound to post this story, I might as well do it myself... the State of Vermont has just passed the first state law requiring GMO foods to be labeled, and it is set to go into effect July 1.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/04...eling-bill

As someone who is opposed to mandatory GMO labeling, I'm actually glad to see that this happened in Vermont. Why? Because Vermont is the state whose previous attempt to force mandatory labeling was overturned in the courts, on Constitutional grounds. Without credible scientific proof that such labeling serves a compelling public interest, the court said, and with strong evidence that such labeling would be adverse to the food producer's business success due to the irrational demonization of the product, such labels are not legally defensible. The precedent is already set, and the circumstances are parallel.

This law is nothing but a big gift to the lawyers who will work on the case. But once it is overturned, I think the example will finally convince other states that this kind of legislation is futile, and a waste of time, effort, and money. Unfortunately I think that Hawai'i will burn through a few millions in legal costs before that point becomes totally clear.

And yes, there has just been a federal bill presented to ban GMO labeling at the state level, and to promote a voluntary non-GMO labeling program at the national level, but I'm afraid it makes too much sense to have any real chance of passing.

[Guest]

I think 9 states have passed something now....

[gogould]

Hey thanks on the info OpenD! It is true that a little knowledge is just that. I am guilty on not going further. The discovery that the USDA Organic label is applied on a trust basis with China kind of stopped me.
The reason I was looking so hard at that can of black beans was because they are really bad black beans. Nice labels and lots of them, though.

[OpenD]

quote:

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Originally posted by Oneself

I think 9 states have passed something now....

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This is just noise. Where did you find that number, in your... ermmm... hat?

IMO, it is this stupendous disregard for the truth that characterizes the entire anti-GMO movement. It's really frustrating to try to have an intelligent conversation with people who just make stuff up whenever it suits them.

In fact, as the article I posted clearly states, Vermont is the first state to put a mandatory GMO labeling law into effect, beginning July 1, 2014.

Two states... Connecticut and Maine have previously passed similar legislation, but with no effective date. Each requires a certain number of other states to join them before the provisions would take effect. Details here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govb...mo-labels/

These delays are in recognition of the fact that a practical aspect of a single state enacting such a labeling requirement would be that a certain number of food producers would simply elect to stop distributing their products within the state, while the remaining would raise their prices to offset the increased cost of compliance. Considering the fact that 70% or more of supermarket foods today contain GMO elements, the predictable impact would be enormous.

It's that all-too-predictable result that I find Hawai'i anti-GMO advocates to be criminally silent about, that their faith-based initiative, devoid of credible scientific reason, would almost certainly raise food prices across the state, and remove a certain number of products from the shelves altogether.

[Derrick Barnicoat]

If there are any anti-GMO people out there announce yourselves!!!!!!!



I am pretty certain there are not many. The issue is labeling and yes GMO products will become more expensive and should be more expensive. It doesn't cost much to plant a seed. Sure you have to maybe water the plants sometimes or make compost but still the process of natural farming does not cost as much as a decade of R&D or spraying toxic chemicals that to irreversible damage to the environment. So yeah non organic, genetically modified food should be more expensive. That way the 1% can eat all the crap they want and die early, no problem there. Win/Win as far as I'm concerned.

I believe in freedom, so I fully support people eating chemically enhanced mutant crapola, but I also support having a choice and not stepping all over other peoples rights. When it is impossible to grown non GMO food because the GMO pollen is going everywhere we are deprived of our freedom to choose. This is not what I pay my taxes for. Plus many countries don't even import GMO food so how do you think that effects the economy.

It's all superficial nonsense putting animal genes into plants to protect from disease so the produce doesn't look lumpy or discolored meanwhile the economy is getting screwed and the produce is sick to the core. It's one step away from injecting botchilism into your face so you can feel like you look "younger". It's superficial american consumer culture, profit is the priority, not nutrition or health.