03-01-2015, 08:20 AM
If you're worried about antibiotic resistance, then focus on concentrated animal feed operations (CAFOs) as over 80% of antibiotics are fed to livestock and are needed because of the conditions at these operations.
The bacteria with lab plasmids in China's rivers are a concern to me not as a major source of antibiotic resistance, but because they are an indicator for poor biotech containment procedures, lab practices that has existed for decades since recombinant DNA was first developed.
I disagree with inferring ingredients - while corn and soy in the US are most likely GMO, the actual variants used do matter. Some strains are single trait GMO, encoding one bt toxin in corn for example, some encode several bt toxins. Some GMO strains have been pulled from the market such as Starlink corn, and some corn is non-GMO. All of these are currently "corn" in the ingredient list. Again, what is the harm in clear labeling?
I also disagree that this is not a matter for the states as these changes often come from the bottom up. Overall the GMO discussion has many parallels with the trans-fat debate that took decades to work through. While the GMO food science is being sorted out, clear labeling is simple and helpful for the consumer to make informed choices while the slow gears of the federal regulatory agencies come to a science-based decision to support, limit, or eliminate various GMO food products.
IMHO
EDIT: typos
The bacteria with lab plasmids in China's rivers are a concern to me not as a major source of antibiotic resistance, but because they are an indicator for poor biotech containment procedures, lab practices that has existed for decades since recombinant DNA was first developed.
I disagree with inferring ingredients - while corn and soy in the US are most likely GMO, the actual variants used do matter. Some strains are single trait GMO, encoding one bt toxin in corn for example, some encode several bt toxins. Some GMO strains have been pulled from the market such as Starlink corn, and some corn is non-GMO. All of these are currently "corn" in the ingredient list. Again, what is the harm in clear labeling?
I also disagree that this is not a matter for the states as these changes often come from the bottom up. Overall the GMO discussion has many parallels with the trans-fat debate that took decades to work through. While the GMO food science is being sorted out, clear labeling is simple and helpful for the consumer to make informed choices while the slow gears of the federal regulatory agencies come to a science-based decision to support, limit, or eliminate various GMO food products.
IMHO
EDIT: typos