National GMO Labeling Needed Not State-By-State

National GMO Labeling Needed Not State-By-State

Agvocate, blogger and Oregon grass seed and hazelnut farmer Brenda Frketich recently had an Op-Ed piece published in the Oregonian. She and I both attended last week’s AgChat Pacific Northwest Regional Conference where we visited more about her thoughts on nationally labeling of GMOs.
Frketich: “The Safe and Accurate Labeling Act that is being discussed right now in Congress. It is a piece of legislation that takes the burden or the ability for states to individually label GMO foods. For me, it is a situation that I”m very passionate about because I truly believe that if you start to do state-to-state mandating of labeling for GMO foods it really puts states at a disadvantage. It also allows the cost of groceries to go up for those individual states and puts us at a marketing disadvantage also. I think that it is something that should be definitely be handled at the national level.”
This issue is definitely bigger than one state’s geographic area as Washington, Oregon and Colorado have all had ballot measures defeated for labeling of GMOs.
Frketich writes in her article that one of the issues is QUOTE, ‘State labeling mandates are full of carve outs and exemptions, they are built on emotion and fear. Not to mention, they also vary from state to state, creating even more burden for farmers and the agricultural food industry.” UNQUOTE
She adds that safety isn’t an issue as the world’s leading health and regulatory bodies have determined that GMOS are safe and nearly 2,000 independent, peer-reviewed studies have found the same.

 

Read her article here.

 

 

 

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