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Johnson writes: "We're officially a country that labels GMOs now. President Obama signed a bill on Friday that requires food companies to label products with genetically engineered ingredients."

Rally for GMO labels. (photo: Stephen Lam/Reuters)
Rally for GMO labels. (photo: Stephen Lam/Reuters)


GMO Labels Are Now the Law of the Land

By Nathanael Johnson, Grist

31 July 16

 

e�re officially a country that labels GMOs now. President Obama signed a bill on Friday that requires food companies to label products with genetically engineered ingredients. They can do this by writing it on the box, slapping on a symbol, or applying a Quick Response (QR) code � something like a barcode. For more on the law, check out our previous coverage.

Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, who was instrumental in pushing the bill through Congress, praised its passage in a statement. She said the law �gives our nation�s farmers and food companies a fresh opportunity to start a conversation with consumers about the importance and safety of biotechnology.�

The U.S. Department of Agriculture now has two years to figure out how to define a GMO. Are they crops that have had their genes tweaked or silenced, or mutated with radiation? Should the definition be narrowly focused on the original transgenic crops? There will undoubtedly be fights during the rule-making process.

This new law overrides Vermont�s GMO-labeling law and prevents any other state-level GMO-labeling attempts, but it allows voluntary labeling to continue.


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+10 # Dust 2014-09-12 15:16
Clean water
Clean air
Clean food
Freedom of information
Freedom of communication
Freedom of education
Freedom of/from religion

One world.
 
 
-13 # arquebus 2014-09-13 00:21
By golly that is a great idea. Let's eliminate fossil fuels from the face of the earth on the 21st. But, wait....the next day--the 22nd--how are people going to get to work? How are trucks going to haul food to the cities? Oh, that's right....they are going to use electricity from the non-existent solar grid.

Somebody ought to tell these yahoos that Rome wasn't built in a day...it takes time to move from one system to another. They need to relax....we are in a transition period...fossil fuels will be phased out...already are. Just takes a bit of time...the sky isn't falling.
 
 
+4 # Dust 2014-09-13 11:44
Seems like this protest is part of the phasing. Why object? Rome wasn't built in a day, but it sounds like if you had been on one of the seven hills when the first architects sat down and said "Heus quis similis locus urbis", you would immediately have started objecting. But your objections make no sense- if I said I needed to walk down the street to get a book from the library, you'd jump up and start screaming that it takes time to walk to the library, and first I need to put on a jacket, and make sure I have my library card, and can read, and most importantly - what will I read while I am walking there???
 
 
+6 # Floe 2014-09-13 13:37
Oh you think the sky is not falling? Well what if you're wrong? We've known about the dangers of burning fossil fuels for decades and what's been done about it? Practically nothing. Just token change. Don't be ridiculous to infer that it's going to be done tomorrow. But I can tell you one thing we can do tomorrow - and that is make the commitment to be off the demon's expectoration within ten years and you just watch the money flow in from investors waiting for some bold state to give the long-term go ahead. WE DON'T EVEN HAVE A LONG-TERM ENERGY POLICY. Doing what you suggest is kicking the can down the road. NO. We go for everything and we go for it NOW. We've given enough chances for governments and corporations to do something and they failed. Miserably.
 
 
+2 # bmiluski 2014-09-15 11:28
You're absolutely right arquebus....Rom e wasn't built in a day but at least it was built.
The Climate March just want's authentic participation by ALL nations to fight this very credible danger to all our lives.
 
 
+1 # NAVYVET 2014-09-13 07:29
Thank you! I love this acronym: CONG! My British friends would say CONG has pong!
 
 
+6 # born1929 2014-09-13 11:25
There is a Chinese proverb: There are two best times to plant a tree .... the first is twenty years ago and the second is now
stan Levin
 

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