Genetically modified food producers don't want it to be labelled 'GMO' (or should it be 'GMF') Where are you on this issue?

a) Not that they’re questionable, just that consumers freak out about it. Like how “nuclear magnetic resonance” got renamed “magnetic resonance” because people get creeped out by the word “nuclear.”

b) I haven’t noticed it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.

For what it’s worth, I have no problem with GM products.

What, exactly, constitutes “genetic modification”? When I grow an apple tree from a seed that has been produced from the pollination of the fruit that it grew in, that by itself was a “genetic modification” of the original fruit, wasn’t it? Granted, it wasn’t done in a lab (probably), but it was still a ‘modification’ of the genes of the two original trees.

Livestock are routinely produced by laboratory means, including artificial insemination. And even “regular” insemination again, being a sexual combination of the male and female contributions to the offspring, is a “genetic modification”. What isn’t? (Okay, fungi and bacterial food products are exempted from being ‘always genetically modified’.)

I think the label is one that is intended to be used to scare people from the product, just as margarine was meant to be labeled and even colored differently from butter to scare people away from it, when it was first introduced, and “irradiated” foods are intended to be labeled that way to scare people away from a perfectly safe (in fact, safer than usual) means of production.

I dont see any valid reason why the consumer shouldnt have the right to know something like this

I think they dont want it labelled because they know they will sell more. It’s that simple. It could mean the food is bad for you and the seller is an evil little shit, or it could mean they know for a fact it is safe and just dont want their product to have any stigma slapped on it.

Be it safe or not though, they need to put the label on it. People should know what they are buying, and if they don’t like it, hard luck.

Personally, I think the stuff is perfectly safe. I’m no doctor, I’m not even read up well on the topic, but i can’t imagine how the meat could cause me any harm. If it is just proteins and what not, i’ll simply digest it. as long as no venom or poison or toxin is present, it must be safe to eat.

The stomach is not some kind of top secret science lab, that will turn anything you eat in to a part of you. I just can’t see how the genetic trickery in the food could possibly alter my DNA or cause me any kind of harm.

Maybe, if it does pose a risk, it will pose a risk to the animal. maybe being genetically modified will leave you open to infections or weak bones, and then you could have an animal rights issue, but otherwise think the stuff is safe.

Put your label on it, and ill buy it and eat it. I think the idea of GM food is great, and has the potential to feed the world. I could imagine GM food being looked back at from the future, with everyone considering it as important as agriculture. But, if you dont put a label on the meat, i will go out of my way to boycott your product. Don’t do the big evil corporation lawyer thing to fix your problem, instead, have some studies and educate people about it, and put a label on the box!.

The fact that they are trying too hard to hide it from the public makes people more suspicious or ‘freak out’, or ‘creeped out’ about it.
When it is something people injest, it should be labelled. No ifs, or buts about it.

I think they should be labeled, because the public wants them to be labeled.

But I don’t think the public should be concerned with GMOs. Every single thing we eat has been “genetically modified” through intensive breeding; there is no special danger from GMO’s that doesn’t apply to ordinary crops.

Crossbreeding and hybridization is not the same as GMO. I would want to know.

But I don’t want to fight about this again. This question is a good example of what happens. This one is even better. :)

@poisonedantidote Protein is perfectly capable of being a disease vector. Just think of BSE (Mad Cow Disease) which was passed from feed to animal through malformed animal based proteins. Not that I’m suggesting GMOs do anything similar, but it isn’t wise to be completely blasé about them. A dose of healthy scepticism is called for, as I think the onus is on the food scientists to prove the safety of their product.

http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4112

@meiosis ,
@poisonedantidote is saying it should be labeled. “Be it safe or not though, they need to put the label on it. People should know what they are buying, and if they don’t like it, hard luck…..But, if you dont put a label on the meat, i will go out of my way to boycott your product. Don’t do the big evil corporation lawyer thing to fix your problem, instead, have some studies and educate people about it, and put a label on the box!.”

A lot of people are commenting whether GMFs are harmfull or not. Wherever people stand on that, when it comes to labelling it, everyone should be on the same side, label it. Otherwise the GMF producers, and their supporters are advocating cheating, tricking, people into buying GMF. And that can’t be good PR for the GMF producers.

Nice link, @Rarebear. Kudos for that.

@CyanoticWasp It’s my favorite podcast.

”.........., ....., ...., I want people to buy my product without knowing that it is genetically modified food”. ”...., ...., I would rather not practice disclosure”. Not good.

Peanut products are perfectly fine with most people . But people with severe peanut allergy get to avoid it because of labelling. It is all about disclosure. So, all the links to different articles pro or con, (although useful), are really not the point.

I agree with @uberbatman .

I will not eat them. I will look for organic.
Passing of S516 should be ruled unconstitutional.
Monsanto is making us into their Lab Rats.

@philosopher, I entered S516 in Google, I don’t get any result.

@flo
I have PMed you the information.

I too was unable to find a reference, not even on http://thomas.loc.gov/ (the definitive site to look for legislation). Curious.

@laureth
It is on whitehouse.gov
I found other sites too.
Legal language is not easy to interrupt. For people who are not lawyers
Monsanto had their bill attached to another.
We should not be forced to eat gentically alterted food. No one knows the long term affects of GM food.
I think if they were going to stop organic food companies like Whole Foods would be screaming but; Monsanto can not be trusted.

I looked on whitehouse.gov and found nothing for S516. Can you provide a direct link to some information?

@laureth I also tried it at whitehouse.gov., with small letter s though. No result. I did get a few results on Google, a few weeks ago, but not today.
How about this one, (philosopher’s suggestion)
http://littlebytesnews.amplify.com/2010/12/01/what-the-passing-of-s510-the-food-control-bill-means-to-youthe-cost-of-food-tcot-news-parents-kids/

Flo yes it is s510.
I could not find what I saw before.
I found this.
Statement by the President on Food Safety
Posted on July 07, 2010 at 01:36 PM EST
Type: Press Article, Statements and Releases
for its work and support efforts in the Senate to pass S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. This bipartisan bill would complement the work already undertaken by the Food Safety Working Group. The bill addresses longstanding challenges…

————————————————————————————————————————

Inventory Function Codes
Posted on May 25, 2010 at 01:51 PM EST
Type: Office of Management and Budget
and Dry Cleaning Operations S499 Other Building and Housing Management Services S500 Management of Law Enforcement, Physical Security and Security Guard Operations S510 Law Enforcement, Physical Security… Accounts Payable C302 Travel Processing C303 Fixed Assets C304 Accounts Receivable C305 Collections C306 Customer Billings C307 General Accounting C308 Financial Report Generation… —Procurement and Contracting F320 Contract Administration and Operations F399 Other Procurement and Contracting Activities F400 Recurring Purchasing F510 Engineering Support at Maintenance Depots F520 All Other Engineering…

————————————————————————————————————————
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There are grey areas if you goggle the bill you can find a great deal about it.
Whole Foods and other Organic Stores would be screaming if Monsanto was attempting to put them out of business. Some people seem to think that is Monsanto’s goal.
I did see many things on goggle today. Sometimes you need to try difffferent wording.

Ah, that bill. Here’s some information from Snopes.

@laureth
I am aware of this but; so far non of the Organic Providers have told me they are being forced to to change anything.
It concerns me that Monsanto pushed it through Congress.
I will still plant and I hope the Farmers Market will be open in the Spring.
I know other people who plant yearly. I don’t think they will dear to tell us we can not.
What it demonstrates is that Congress works for the Lobbyist not us.

@laureth I ‘m looking for any reference to labelling in the link. I am looking for S510 or s510 or anything similar.

@flo – did you find anything?

@laureth yes I did, I haven’t read it yet though.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510

I just read it but I haven’t learned anything. That is just me.

This seems to be a pretty good summary of the bill. Mostly, I believe it’s designed to make it easier to track a nasty outbreak (of salmonella, say) back to the store, factory, processing place, and farm, so it can be traced to an origin and cleaned up, preventing needless suffering. My main objection to it is that if we didn’t have such a huge conglomerate food machine, we wouldn’t have so many outbreaks in the first place.

So this bill has to do with to labelling the food items ‘organic’ or ‘GMF’? I don’t see any reference to labelling or not labelling in there. I am confused.

@flo
Everyone is a little confused.
I learned a lot by watching Dr. Oz’s show about genetically modified food. You can find information on his site.
Only Lawyers can explain bills.
I am concerned about how it affects my families health.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/case-you-missed-it-genetically-modified-foods

Here:
http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Genetically-Modified-Foods
I can’t believe it can say ‘organic’ if it just has 30% organic.