LABEL IT!! Boxer, DeFazio Introduce Bill to Require Labeling of Genetically Engineered Foods

The Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act has broad support from organizations and businesses, including the Center for Food Safety, Consumers Union, Environmental Working Group, Just Label It, the National Farmers Union, Stonyfield Farms, Consumer Federation of America, AllergyKids Foundation, National Cooperative Grocers Association, New England Farmers Union, Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, Center for Environmental Health, Chefs Collaborative, Label GMOs, Alaska Trollers Association, Ben & Jerry’s, Clif Bar & Company, Lundberg Family Farms, Nature’s Path, Annie’s Inc., and many others. For a list of more of the groups supporting the bill, click here.
[link to www.boxer.senate.gov]

The bipartisan legislation introduced today would require clear labels for genetically engineered whole foods and processed foods, including fish and seafood. The measure would direct the FDA to write new labeling standards that are consistent with U.S. labeling standards and international standards.

Broad Support for the Genetically Engineered Food Right -
to Know Act

The following are some of the organizations and businesses supporting the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act:

National, State and Local Organizations

Animal Welfare Approved
Animal Welfare Institute
American AntiVivisection Society
AllergyKids Foundation
Alliance for Natural Health USA
Berkshire Environmental Action Team
Carolina Farm Stewardship Association
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Food Safety
Center for Environmental Health
Center for Media and Democracy's Food Rights Network
Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture
Central Co-op
Certified Naturally Grown
Chefs Collaborative
Community Alliance for Global Justice
Consumer Federation of America
Consumers Union
Council for Responsible Genetics
CounterCorp
Cuatra Puertas
Dakota Rural Action
Earthjustice
Ecological Farming Association
Ecology Party of Florida
Econsulting
The Endocrine Disruption Exchange
Environmental Working Group
Healthcare Without Harm
Family Farm Defenders
Farmworker Association of Florida
Food Democracy Now!
Food and Water Watch
Friends of the Earth
Illinois Public Health Association
Illinois Right to Know GMO
Institute for Agricultu
re and Trade Policy
Institute for Responsible Technology
Institute for a Sustainable Future
Just Label It
Label GMOs
Loka Institute
Midwest Environmental Justice Organization
Mvskoke Food Sovereignty Initiative
National Organic Coalition
Nature Institute
Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society
New Mexico Seeds
Northern Plains Resource Council
Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance
Oregon Rural Action
Organic Consumers Association
Organic Farming Research Foundation
Organic & Non-GMO Report
Organic Seed
Association
Penobscot East Resource Center
Pesticide Action Network North America
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Powder River Basin Resource Council
Public Citizen
Rodale Institute
Slow Food Nebraska
SomeOfUs
South Florida Cancer Association
Sustainable Living Systems
Washington Biotechnology Action Council
Western Organization of Resource Councils
Women’s Voices for the Earth
Veritable Vegetable


Business, Trade, Fishing and Farming Associations

Adams Farm Slaughterhouse
Alaska Trolle
rs Association
American Grassfed Association
Amy’s Kitchen
Annies, Inc.
Ben and Jerry’s
Bon Appétit Management Company
Clif Bar and Company
Crab Boat Owners Association
CROPP Cooperative / Organic Valley
Del Cabo
Eden Foods
Equal Exchange
Good Earth
Natural Foods
Lundberg Family Farms
National Cooperative Grocers Association
National Farmers Union
Nature’s Path
New England Farmers Union
Northeast Organic Farming Association
- Interstate Council
Northeast Organic Farming Association
- New Hampshire
Northeast Organic Farming Association
- New York
Northeast Organic Farming Association
- Rhode Island
Northeast Organic Farming Association
- Vermont
Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance
Oregon Tilth
Organic Farmers' Agency for Relationship Marketing, Inc.
Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association
Straus Family Creamery
Stonyfield
PCC Natural Markets
United Natural Foods, Inc

Nice. I think it will be the first time my senator and I are on the same side! I wonder what the chances are that it could pass on a federal level. When California tried the powerful lobbyists were out in full force.

Yes.

Melissa Harris Perry did a whole segment on it today. I will post the video when it becomes available. The show was definitely slanted towards labeling it! I was kind of shocked actually.

Currently, the FDA requires the labeling of over 3,000 ingredients, additives and processes, but the agency has resisted labels for genetically modified foods. In a 1992 policy statement, the FDA allowed GE foods to be marketed without labeling, claiming that these foods were not “materially” different from other foods because the genetic differences could not be recognized by taste, smell or other senses.

Unfortunately, the FDA’s antiquated labeling policy has not kept pace with 21st century food technologies that allow for a wide array of genetic and molecular changes to food that can’t be detected by human senses. Common sense would indicate that GE corn that produces its own insecticide – or is engineered to survive being doused by herbicides – is materially different from traditional corn that does not. Even the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has recognized that these foods are materially different and novel for patent purposes.
[link to www.boxer.senate.gov]

I find it very hard o believe that that woman is acually doing something right for a change.

Read the fine print, there must be gun control in there somewhere.

Haha! I was actually routing for her (Melisa Harris Perry) during the show. It's a tough thing for her to do! Buck the administration and Monsanto!!!! She seemed pretty fair though.

This from her website about the show:

They say you are what you eat, but as more of our food becomes genetically modified, we know increasingly less about what we are consuming. On Sunday’s Melissa Harris-Perry, Melissa will look at one of the nation’s biggest producers of GMOs: Monsanto. After a five-to-four Supreme Court decision in 1980 held that living organisms could be patented, Monsanto has become known as the “seed police” for aggressively enforcing the use of their genetically modified seeds. Get caught up on the lawsuit now in the Supreme Court that challenges those patent laws.

Since 2005, Monsanto has purchased top companies producing fruit, vegetable, cotton and soybean seeds. Those acquisitions have led to outcomes like Monsanto’s estimated 90% control of all soybean production in the nation. As the company has increased its share of the seed market, it has also raised concerns about the safety of the genetically modified crops they produce. That concern was only intensified when President Obama signed a continuing spending resolution that included a “Farmer Assurance Provision.”The provision mandates that federal courts cannot intervene in the planting or selling of GMOs, even if they have been deemed hazardous to the public. Join us at the top of the show as we ask: do we have any idea how safe genetically modified food actually is?

Last Edited by calin on 04/28/2013 12:19 PM

From article posted above:

"In a 1992 policy statement, the FDA allowed GE foods to be marketed without labeling, claiming that these foods were not “materially” different from other foods because the genetic differences could not be recognized by taste, smell or other senses."

Funny that they feel it's o.k. because we can't taste, smell GE foods. If someone put arsenic in our food we wouldn't be able to "taste, smell" it either probably. Even though we may not be able to taste or smell GE food our bodies sure react adversely to it!

Uggg! Forgot about the fine print in my surprise & shock that she's the one introducing it.

This was Barbara Boxer's letter to the FDA LAST YEAR:



Press Release of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
For Immediate Release:

March 12, 2012

Contact: Washington D.C. Office (202) 224-3553

Boxer, DeFazio Join Colleagues in Urging FDA to Require Labeling of Genetically Engineered Foods

55 Senate and House Lawmakers Call on Agency to Ensure Consumers Can Make Informed Choices About What They Eat

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) today joined with 53 other Senate and House lawmakers in sending a letter urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require the labeling of genetically engineered foods so that consumers can make informed choices about what they feed their families.

The Senate and House lawmakers wrote in support of a petition – supported by hundreds of organizations and businesses – that calls on the FDA to protect consumers’ rights by ensuring that all genetically engineered foods are properly labeled. Polls have consistently shown that consumers are surprised to learn that genetically engineered foods are not identified and they strongly support a federal requirement to label these products.

The lawmakers wrote, “We urge you to fully review the facts, law, and science, and side with the American public by requiring the labeling of genetically engineered foods as is done in nearly 50 countries throughout the world. FDA has a clear opportunity to protect a consumer’s right to know, the freedom to choose what we feed our families, and the integrity of our free and open markets with this petition.”

In addition to Senator Boxer and Congressman DeFazio, the letter was signed by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mark Begich (D-AK), Jon Tester (D-MT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Representatives Richard Hanna (R-NY), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), George Miller (D-CA), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Peter Welch (D-VT), Hansen Clarke (D-MI), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Sam Farr (D-CA), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Madeleine Bordallo (D-GU), James Moran (D-VA), John Olver (D-MA), Jared Polis (D-CO), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Pete Stark (D-CA), Howard Berman (D-CA), Robert Brady (D-PA), David Cicilline (D-RI), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Bob Filner (D-CA), Barney Frank (D-NY), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Janice Hahn (D-CA), Michael Honda (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), James McGovern (D-MA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Jackie Speier (D-CA), John Tierney (D-MA), Mel Watt (D-NC), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Grace Napolitano (D-CA).

The full text of the lawmakers’ letter is below:

March 12, 2012
The Honorable Margaret Hamburg
Commissioner
Food and Drug Administration
5100 Paint Branch Parkway
College Park, MD 20740-3835

Dear Commissioner Hamburg,

We write to you in support of a recent legal petition, supported by over 400 organizations and businesses, to protect consumer rights and prevent consumer deception by requiring the labeling of genetically engineered foods. FDA’s regulatory regime for food labeling is inadequate and uses 19th century concepts to regulate 21st century food technologies.

As you know, in its 1992 policy statement, FDA allowed GE foods to be marketed without labeling because they were not “materially” different from other foods. In that policy statement, the agency severely limited what it considered “material” to only changes in food that could be recognized by taste, smell, or other senses. The use of novel food technologies like genetic engineering on a commercial scale has so far slipped underneath FDA’s limited threshold for “materiality” because such technologies make silent, genetic, and molecular changes to food that are not capable of being detected by human senses. In its 2009 guidance to industry, FDA applied its outdated GE food labeling policy to GE animals without revisiting the scientific or legal merits of the standard. This decision is especially troubling given FDA’s current consideration of a GE salmon that would be the first genetically engineered animal for human consumption.

At issue is the fundamental right consumers have to make informed choices about the food they eat. Labeling foods doesn’t imply a product is unsafe or will be confusing to consumers as some may argue. The FDA requires the labeling of over 3,000 ingredients, additives, and processes; providing basic information doesn’t confuse the public, it empowers them to make choices. Absent labeling, Americans are unable to choose for themselves whether to purchase GE foods. Polls have consistently shown that consumers are not only surprised to know that GE foods are not identified, but that they want the federal government to label these products. Since the labeling petition was filed in October 2011, nearly a million comments have been submitted in support of labeling.

The FDA has the opportunity and authority to do right by the American public. When issuing its rule requiring irradiated foods to be labeled, FDA stated in broad terms that a decision to require labeling is not just based on the physical changes to the food but also on whether consumers view such information as important, and whether the omission of label information may mislead a consumer. The fact that FDA has already adopted this broad interpretation of “material” facts demonstrates that it is a reasonable—and therefore permissible—interpretation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

We urge you to fully review the facts, law, and science, and side with the American public by requiring the labeling of genetically engineered foods as is done in nearly 50 countries throughout the world. FDA has a clear opportunity to protect a consumer’s right to know, the freedom to choose what we feed our families, and the integrity of our free and open markets with this petition. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Cc: Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods

Calin, thanks for the other thread also - just saw it:

Thread: NON GMO foods, supplements, facts, stores, education, products, restaurants, brands

5* & green.

Lovely... thank you!

I take it that you are an advocate for healthy eating! ;)

No gun control in the bill!

Obama Promises to Label GMOs

Published on Mar 12, 2013

Support Press For Truth and help us to continue by donating at [link to www.pressfortruth.ca]

Whole Foods has recently announced their plan to label all GMO products in their stores! This is a major victory for those of us who have been raising awareness about this issue for years! This is a step in the right direction which will contribute to the effort to have GMO foods eliminated entirely from our food supply.

Whole Foods' mandatory GMO labeling initiative and why it will take five years to solve the GMO problem:
[link to www.naturalnews.com]