We don t often agree with The New York Times editorial board but they were spot-on Friday with an editorial questioning why genetically engineered food should be labeled.
Any private company has the right to require its suppliers to meet labeling standards it chooses to set, and consumers have a right to know what s in the food they are buying, the Times wrote. But there is no reliable evidence that genetically modified foods now on the market pose any risk to consumers.
The Times acknowledges that while there are efforts to mandate labeling pending in several states, there seems little reason to make labeling compulsory.
ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross says the editorial seems like a rebuke to the Times columnist Mark Bittman, who has frequently opined against GMOs and was an advocate for the defeated Proposition 37 bill in California. Dr. Ross agrees, of course, with the Times editorial board when he says, GM foods pose no danger to consumers or the environment."
And ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom adds, it s a free country. People who choose the organic option in order to avoid GM foods should be able to cheerfully waste their money in any way they see fit.
