Label Battle

Proposition 37 failed in California, but some food activists are not giving this one up without a fight. They have begun a “Label It Yourself” campaign. On their website they offer GMO labeling guidelines and a list of ingredients that may contain GMO’s. Interested food activists can then use the provided printable GMO warning labels, consisting of a skull with ears of corn growing out of it, to put on products at their local grocery stores themselves. Sounds illegal doesn’t it, as well as just a wee bit over the top. When asked about the legality of the whole thing one of the supporters stated they were pretty sure it was illegal, if done beyond your own cupboard. Anyone else find that statement funny? Food activists against GMO’s putting homemade warning labels on food they themselves have purchased and put in their own cupboards. Talk about irony. As a defense they claim that labeling the food that “the person who does the shopping in the household brings home” is a good way to start a conversation about what’s in the food we eat without doing anything illegal. Frankly, if I was the one doing the shopping, I would tell the person doing the “labeling” to buy their own food and keep it in their own house.