Environment · Health · News · Politics · Rights
Posted
on December 3, 2016
While attention was diverted
to the US election for much of this year, the Senate quietly made null and void
state laws that require that GMO foods be labeled.
Credit – Modern Farmer
Genetically Modified
Organisms (GMOs) are a concern for a number of reasons. When consumed, GMOs
have been shown to cause gastrointestinal problems, increase cancer risk, and even silence human genes, not to mention their harmful effects on the environment and endangered
species such as bees. Within the US, there is also a dearth of
safety testing as most tests that show that GMOs are “safe” are short-term
studies, lasting only a matter of months. Longer-term studies, even those
conducted for just a few months longer than industry-funded studies, have found
that the consumption of GMOs causes serious problems, such as an increase in
tumor risk. For those US consumers who are rightly concerned about the presence
of GMOs in their food, mandatory GMO labeling is one solution that gives
consumers the right to know what is in their food while not affecting the GMO
food purchases of those who support biotechnology. A handful of US states have
successfully passed GMO labeling laws such as Connecticut, Maine, and Vermont. Similar initiatives in other states, like
California, only failed due to the massive amounts of money funneled to
the opposition by Industrial Agriculture and Food companies as well as the
corporations who create GMO seeds and associated agrochemicals, such as
Monsanto.
Some Congressmen, however,
have been working to undermine the ability of individual states to determine
how they label GMOs in recent years. First, Representative Steve King (R-IA)
tried several times to introduce the Protect Interstate Commerce Act, which would allow states without labeling
laws to sell unlabeled products in states that do. However, the measure was
never voted upon. Then, HR 1599, also known as the “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling
Act of 2015,” was introduced, which despite its pleasant-sounding name, would
make GMO labeling “voluntary” nationwide and would essentially make the
mandatory labeling laws of several states null and void. The measure was
authored by Representative Mike Pompeo (R-KS), who President-Elect Trump has
chosen to lead the CIA. However, the bill passed the house, but not the senate, keeping GMO labeling
laws on the books for the time being.
Not to be stopped by
Congressional interference, the agriculture and food corporations soon sought
other means to undermine state labeling laws once and for all. While most
Americans were distracted by the constant upheavals during the most recent US
election as well as geopolitical events such as Brexit, the Senate Committee on
Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry quietly “struck a deal” known as the “bipartisan agriculture biotechnology
compromise solution.” Beyond its newspeak title, the text of the legislation makes it clear that this “compromise”
effectively bans all GMO labeling laws passed by states. However, it goes even
farther. This bill declares that no foods shall be labeled as containing GMOs
for two years. After this two year moratorium on labeling, the USDA will then
create a national rule for a scannable QR code on labels which would say
whether or not the product is GMO. However, QR codes are only readable by
smartphones, leaving those without expensive cell phones unable to read the
labels. More disturbing still, it gives the USDA the right to declare foods non-GMO
if less than 50% of its content is bio-engineered. It also would not require
animal products derived from animals fed GMO grains to be considered
bio-engineered either.
The bill, under the title S.764 or “A bill to reauthorize and amend the
National Sea Grant College Program Act, and for other purposes,” skipped a
house vote and was voted on by the Senate on July 7th, a month after
it had been introduced. Obama signed and enacted the legislation a few weeks
later on July 29th with little fanfare. All of this took place
while media attention was focused on Brexit as well as the Republican and
Democratic National Conventions, marking the opening stages of the general
election. Regardless of how one feels about GMOs, the passage of this law in
such an under-the-radar manner is a chilling blow to state’s rights. The
nullification of state laws, especially one passed in several states, should,
at the very least, be an issue debated upon by the entire Congress and the
American public at large. However, some senators, and the president himself,
chose to pass this law without so much as peep while the populace was
conveniently distracted by the US election circus.
What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this
news!
This article (While You Were Distracted By The US
Election, The Senate Outlawed GMO Labeling Nationwide) is free and open source. You have permission
to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author
and TrueActivist.com
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