You've probably heard this many times, the fact that the labelling of GM Food products is a very big controversy. Some agriculture businesses believe that labelling should be necessary and influenced by the demands of the free market. If consumers show a preference to labelled GM Food over the non-labelled GM Food, then the marketing industry will have to oblige or else this will risk losing customers. This could affect the economy, plus, we want to know what we're eating, right? Some consumer interest groups are demanding that they pass a law for unlabelled GM Food to be illegal. They say that people have the right to know what they are eating, and I think that's true. In a previous post (Human Health risks of GM Food, see Allergenicity,), I talked about the allergy problems about GM Food. If we don't know what we are eating, how do we know if it is safe for us? The FDA's current position about food labelling is ruled by the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The thing is, the only things that they are concerned about is food additives, not the whole food products that are considered "GRAS"- "Generally Recognized As Safe". The FDA believes that GM Food is the same as non-GM Food; therefore, they don't need labelling.
What do you think about this? Please leave a comment below. Thanks!
I didn't know the FDA only deals with food additives, not whole food products. I'd like to know if my food's GM but I don't know if I'd stop buying it. It would depend on what the modifications were. I'd like to be able to buy my food (and soy milk) without having to do research like I did for artificial sweetners.
ReplyDeleteWell, most foods are GM'd so it would be hard to stop eating them unless there is a law passed that they banned GM food... but I doubt it. The FDA does deal with food additives. It kind of ticks me off that they don't think of GM food as a big enough problem to be aware of. There are millions of people out there that think of this as a problem...
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