Tleilaxu_Ghola

I agree that Monsanto has a strong grip on lawmakers, but this Bill has not been voted on by the full House of Representatives, has not passed the Senate and been signed into law by The President.

With public opinion polling consistently over 90% in favor of GMO labeling it is not out of the realm of possibility that President Obama would veto the bill, especially if it is clear there are not enough votes for the Senate to override it.

DthaV

Republicans in the house can approve flying goats, it still has to pass the Senate and then the President.

birds_sing

People don't understand what genetically modified means. Anything that doesn't naturally grow in nature is a GMO. Or anything that is larger or different in some way from it's wild counterpart is a GMO.

A lot of people don't realize that wheat is a GMO. Wheat is the crossbreeding of 3 different grasses. Human's have been growing and eating wheat for centuries. GMOs aren't just these chemically infused foods that are made in a lab.

This was Neil deGrasse Tyson speaking off the top of his head on the subject.

https://youtu.be/1ecT2CaL7NA?t=33s

toobaditworks

Cross Breeding is selectively breeding alike plants with one another. GMO's like BT corn splices genes from bT into the corn. The pesticide is a part of every cell of the plant. This is nothing like Hybrid seeds. Hybrid seeds is just breeding corn with corn.

When talking about Genetically modified they are talking about splicing genes in a lab and they are NOT talking about cross breeding. The only people who don't understand this is the people trying to pervert and manipulate the truth. And even then they do understand the difference but only say that to confuse people.

erietemperance

Banned GMO Labeling

So it is now Illegal to label your products as Non-Gmo?

If I produce Non-GMO food I can get fined and go to jail if I label it as such?

Or there is no law that says that you have to?

Pretty big difference,

flock-o-turtles

Details details....now you want the details. I'm pretty sure that this isn't a law (yet?) and that the bill says that labeling won't be mandatory. If I have a product that does not have GMO ingredients, I can label it as such. I really hate these kind of misleading headlines.

erietemperance

Yeah, from the headline it looks like they banned all labeling, which would be insane, and the headline would make sense. Kind of like how it is illegal to use the words "light" "medium" or "ultra light" on cigarettes,

But that is not the case,

All that happened here is that companies are not legally required to put that information on their products.

I personally prefer less government, so to me, this is a good thing.

Buy your food locally and know the people who grew/produced it, then you don't have to worry about these things, better yet, grow your own food.

Also, I don't think that there is anything wrong with GMO's in the first place. But if you don't want to eat them, don't, and only buy from brands you trust and brands that voluntarily label their products.

No need to use the US government to force every single company to label every single item,

flock-o-turtles

The ingredients list are already mandatory. I don't have a problem with adding mandatory GMO information. You are correct though, the best way to avoid eating something you don't want to, is knowing where your food comes from and not eating pre-packaged processed foods.

erietemperance

Is there even a consensus on what exactly a GMO is? Or would the definition be in litigation for 20 years?

Some people say every food ever is in some way genetically modified, others say only the foods that were GM'ed at the DNA level.

Even if there was a law that mandated the label, I don't think it would mean anything, since they could simply redefine what GMO means,

I am fine with avoiding Monsanto, if we all did that maybe there would be some change, but I doubt that any label would do anything.

flock-o-turtles

Good question. I looked at the wiki on GMO and this is what it said

genetically modified organism (GMO), also known as a transgenic organism, is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. GMOs are the source of genetically modified foods and are also widely used in scientific research and to produce goods other than food. The term GMO is very close to the technical legal term, 'living modified organism', defined in the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which regulates international trade in living GMOs (specifically, "any living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology" ).

So I guess we should be using the the legal definition.

erietemperance

ny living organism that possesses a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology

I can't wait for the congressional hearing where a bunch of dudes in suits are debating the meaning of the word "novel" for 6 weeks.

pacman83

Money own the government.

monadnock_project

so this bill is essentially saying it is not required to slap a GMO label - but there will be some kind of pre-market literature that states if it's a GMO?