Food industry looks to Congress as GMO labeling law nears
Source: Associated Press
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
18 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The food industry is pressuring Congress to act before the state of Vermont requires food labels for genetically modified ingredients.
At issue is how food companies will deal with Vermont's law. They could make separate food packages just for the state, label all their items with genetically modified ingredients or withdraw from the small Vermont market. The law kicks in by July, but the companies have to start making those decisions now.
The food industry wants Congress to pre-empt Vermont's law and bar mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods before it goes into effect. They argue that GMOs, or genetically modified organisms, are safe and a patchwork of state laws isn't practical. Labeling advocates have been fighting state-by-state to enact the labeling, with the eventual goal of a national standard.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack brought the parties together twice this month to see if they could work out a compromise. But agreement won't be easy, as the industry staunchly opposes mandatory labels. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are divided, too, but agree that a compromise needs to be worked out before this summer.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/food-industry-looks-congress-gmo-081424942.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
...Organic items must be non-GMO to be certified.
Related: http://www.gmofreeusa.orghttp://pollan.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/voting-with-your-fork/
Americans At Greater Risk Of Glyphosate Exposure Than Europeans
By Mary Ellen Kustin, Senior Policy Analyst
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016
Americans are more likely than Europeans to be exposed to Monsanto’s glyphosate weed killer. That’s in large part because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s calculations to determine allowable levels of glyphosate use are much more lax than the European Union’s.
And American growers spray a lot of glyphosate.
According to a new paper in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe, Americans have sprayed more than 2.4 billion pounds of glyphosate in the past decade.
As Dr. Charles Benbrook points out in his paper, Monsanto’s genetically engineered Roundup Ready crops made it possible for growers to spray glyphosate more often – and almost up to harvest time. That leaves more of the weed killer’s residues on the crops.
Moreover, ever since genetically engineered crops came on the market and drove up the use of Roundup, the EPA has been ratcheting up the allowable levels of glyphosate residue for certain crops.
According to Benbrook, “[t]o cover such residues, Monsanto and other glyphosate registrants have requested, and generally been granted, substantial increases in glyphosate tolerance levels in several crops, as well as in the animal forages derived from such crops.”
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