“Won’t Eat It! Don’t Want It!” When We Push Hard Enough,
Even the Giant Corporations Step Back!
Kellog’s, ConAgra Foods, General Mills and Mars, Inc announced they are joining the growing list of companies who will identify GMOs in their products with a label designation. They join Campbell’s Soup which broke ranks January, 2015 to say it would label GMOs.
This is stunningly good news for US consumers who do not want to eat GMOs since the food industry has been working hard, and paying out, to keep consumers in the DARK about GMOs. Last week, a bill to prevent States from requiring GMO labeling was defeated by 1 voted in the Senate although it had passed the house easily. The DARK Act (Deny Americans the Right to Know Act) as it was known to opponents, was unsurprisingly, heavily supported by industry, including Pepsi Co., Monsanto, Dow Chemical, the Biotechnology Industry Organization and Coca-Cola.
Total contributions to pass this and similar legislation, officially mis-named SAFE, the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, top $140 million in the last 4 years.
The legislative effort was sparked by Vermont, whose mandatory GMO labeling act is set to go into effect in July. Big Food says it is not feasible to create labels for just one sate, so all packaging must be overhauled nationwide.
This has Vermont crowing, of course. “The GMO food giants aren’t used to losing, but they were just knocked on their collective keister by the state of Vermont,” said Paul Burns, the Executive Director of Vermont’s largest consumer and environmental organization. “Consumers across the country will no doubt take notice.”
Kellogg’s And ConAgra Join General Mills And Mars To Label GMOs
Good article. A minor correction: the 48-49 vote in the Senate was not on Roberts’ Dark Act but rather a procedural “cloture” vote that Republicans hoped would pass and limit discussion of the bill and and possible amendments (60 votes were needed to pass the cloture vote). The effect however was to send a strong signal that the bill itself might not pass and was a great embarrassment to Roberts and other Republicans.