Date: 4/29/2010 1:53:57 PM ( 14 y ) ... viewed 1119 times
Stop the sneak attack on GMO food
labeling!
If the U.S. government has its
way, a powerful
intergovernmental group you've
probably never heard of may
soon prevent anyone anywhere
from labeling genetically
modified (GMO) food.
Operated by the United Nations, the Codex Alimentarius is a
collection of guidelines, codes and recommendations regarding
food safety and labeling standards used by the World Trade
Organization (WTO) to settle international disputes regarding
food and agricultural export agreements.
According to draft language circulated by the FDA, the U.S.
will oppose a proposal at an upcoming meeting of an
important Codex committee that would allow the labeling of
genetically engineered food. Consumers Union and more than
80 family farm, public health, environmental and organic food
organizations have raised concerns that the U.S. position will
create major problems for American producers who want to
label their products as "GMO-free."
Unfortunately, rather than taking a proactive stance on GMO
labeling and standing up for the rights of American citizens,
the Obama administration has incorporated pre-existing Bush
administration positions, stating that Codex should not
"suggest or imply that GM/GE foods are in any way different
from other foods."
Leading national food policy experts believe this position
directly contradicts USDA Organic standards, which prohibit
the use of genetically engineered products. If adopted, the
Obama administration's proposal might not only weaken
organic standards, but could also lead to further genetic
contamination of U.S. organic crops, the fastest and most
profitable segement of agriculture today.
Even worse, the current U.S. draft position paper declares that
mandatory labeling laws such as they have in Europe are
"false, misleading or deceptive." If the U.S. succeeds in writing
the proposed Codex regulations, any attempts here in the U.S.
to label foods as genetically engineered, whether voluntary or
by law, would become far more difficult.
Sign the petition
The petition reads:
"I demand that the U.S. delegation to the Codex Committee on
Food Labeling follow sound science and existing U.S. law and
FDA policy. The delegation must drop its stated opposition to
Codex provisions allowing the labeling of genetically
engineered food. Further, the U.S. delegation should generally
express positions consistent with current U.S. law and FDA
policy which recognize a clear 'difference' between genetically
engineered foods and other foods."
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Jeffrey Smith
Author and founder of the Institute for Responsible Technology
Posted: July 23, 2009 03:17 PM
You're Appointing Who? Please Obama, Say It's Not So!
When FDA scientists were asked to weigh in on what was to become the most radical and potentially dangerous change in our food supply -- the introduction of genetically modified (GM) foods -- secret documents now reveal that the experts were very concerned. Memo after memo described toxins, new diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and hard-to-detect allergens. They were adamant that the technology carried "serious health hazards," and required careful, long-term research, including human studies, before any genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be safely released into the food supply.
But the biotech industry had rigged the game so that neither science nor scientists would stand in their way. They had placed their own man in charge of FDA policy and he wasn't going to be swayed by feeble arguments related to food safety. No, he was going to do what corporations had done for decades to get past these types of pesky concerns. He was going to lie.
Dangerous Food Safety Lies
When the FDA was constructing their GMO policy in 1991-2, their scientists were clear that gene-sliced foods were significantly different and could lead to "different risks" than conventional foods. But official policy declared the opposite, claiming that the FDA knew nothing of significant differences, and declared GMOs substantially equivalent.
This fiction became the rationale for allowing GM foods on the market without any required safety studies whatsoever! The determination of whether GM foods were safe to eat was placed entirely in the hands of the companies that made them -- companies like Monsanto, which told us that the PCBs, DDT, and Agent Orange were safe.