According to a news report in USA Today, the General Mills company has decided that "if you can't fight 'em, join 'em, with respect to the necessity of labeling foods containing GMO ingredients in the state of Vermont.
Like Campbell Soup, the company has determined that it would be prohibitively complicated to try to meet different requirements from different states, so they are just going to label everything that contains GMOs in all their markets.
As we explained last week, a bill that would have banned individual states from requiring manufacturers to require GMO labeling failed to pass in the U.S. Senate. That means that any state can set up its own requirements for such labeling — conceivably resulting in a hodge-podge of regulations from one state to another. Such a situation would be well-nigh impossible for a national company to comply with.
Without too much beating of a moribund horse, I must reiterate what we've pointed out on many occasions — requiring such labeling helps no one but the burgeoning organic foods and "natural" foods industry. These groups, under the flag of giving the people what they want, have pushed to provide them with essentially useless information — whether or not a food is produced using bioengineering, has absolutely no bearing on its relation to health — either human or environmental.
In addition to the perceptive essay by our Dr. Abassi, learn more about agricultural biotechnology here.
