Vermont throws down the gauntlet over GMO labelling
State is first require to stickers on modified foods as debate continues over health implications for consumers
WASHINGTON — Genetically modified foods have been around for years, but most Americans have no idea if they are eating them.
The Food and Drug Administration says they don’t need to be labelled, so the state of Vermont has moved forward on its own. On Thursday, Gov. Peter Shumlin signed legislation making his state the first to require labelling of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Does labelling matter? There’s a lot of confusion about genetically modified foods and their health safety.
Some people feel very strongly about GMOs. Opponents, who at times have protested in the streets, say consumers have the right to know whether their food contains GMOs. The Vermont law is their first major victory.
The food industry and companies that genetically engineer seeds have pushed back against the labelling laws, saying GMOs are safe and labels would be misleading.
“It’s really polarizing,” says New York University’s Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition and food studies. “There’s no middle ground.”
Here is a look at the debate and some of the facts about genetically modified foods:
WHAT THEY ARE
GMOs are not really a “thing,” Nestle says, and that’s hard for the average consumer to grasp. You can’t touch or feel a GMO.
Genetically modified foods are plants or animals that have had genes copied from other plants or animals inserted into their DNA. It’s not a new idea — humans have been tinkering with genes for centuries through selective breeding. Think dogs bred to be more docile pets, cattle bred to be beefier or tomatoes bred to be sweeter. Turkeys were bred to have bigger breasts — better for Thanksgiving dinner.
What’s different about genetically modified or engineered foods is that the manipulation is done in a lab. Engineers don’t need to wait for nature to produce a desired gene; they speed up the process by transferring a gene from one plant or animal to another.
What are the desired traits? Most American corn and soybeans are genetically engineered to resist pesticides and herbicides. A papaya in Hawaii is modified to resist a virus. The FDA is considering an application from a Massachusetts company to approve a genetically engineered salmon that would grow faster than traditional salmon.
IN YOUR GROCERY CART
Most genetically modified corn and soybean crops are used in cattle feed, or are made into ingredients like corn oil, corn starch, high fructose corn syrup or soybean oil.
Even in some of those products, the manufacturing process itself may remove some of the GMOs.
A few fruits and vegetables are engineered — the Hawaiian papaya and some squash and zucchini, for example. Only a small amount of sweet corn, the corn we eat, is genetically modified.
But there’s no genetically modified meat or fish, like the fast- growing salmon, in the market now; the Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve any.
THE FUTURE
Safe or not, consumers are increasingly interested in what is in their food, including GMOs.
“There’s so much confusing speech on food packaging and food advertising that consumers are often buying things they think are GMO free when they are not,” says Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group, which is pushing for the labels.
Faber and other labelling proponents say it’s about transparency, not technology. They say there is precedent, like orange juice labels that say whether the juice is from concentrate.
David Ropeik, the author of the book How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don’t Always Match the Facts, says he thinks the food industry should endorse labelling so it can move past the debate.
“By supporting labelling, companies would say, ‘ There’s no risk, we have nothing to hide,’” he says.