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Gardener News Serving the Agricultural, Gardening and Landscaping Communities
September, 2013
GARDENERNEWS.COM
TAKE ONE No. 125
GMO YES OR NO? By Tom Castronovo Executive Editor How much do you really know about the food you’re putting in your mouth? Oh sure, the “Eat Local,” organic and vegetarian/vegan movements have focused our attention on knowing more about where our fresh foods come from and what practices the farmers who produce them are using. But for those of us who also consume the many processed foods found in supermarkets, what do we really know about how each of the ingredients in those foods was grown or otherwise produced? Some people in the grocery industry estimate that as much as 75 to 80 percent of what is on supermarket shelves has at least one ingredient that is
the product of a genetically modified organism, or “GMO.” A GMO is a plant or animal that has had its genes re-engineered by the introduction of other materials that wouldn’t naturally be found in that plant or animal. Often, it involves materials that make the plant resistant to herbicides, so that farmers can spray enough herbicides to kill weeds without harming the crop plant. How can shoppers who want GMO-free foods know which products they should be buying? Questions like those have led to an intense focus all over America on the practice of using GMOs, sometimes known as “genetically engineered products,” as the baseline agricultural products that go into the processed foods we all buy and consume.
Advocates for safe and healthy foods have been pushing all around the country for state laws that would require any foods being made with ingredients that came from genetically modified plant or animal products to include a statement on their labels about containing GMOs. They say it’s simply fair to consumers to let them (us!) know that these products are in their food. On the other side, there’s a handful of huge corporations, such as Monsanto and DuPont, who have invested millions if not billions of dollars into “perfecting” the process of tampering with a plant’s or animal’s genetic makeup to make them resistant to drought or pesticides/herbicides or in some other way better equipped to survive the natural elements that can reduce crop yields. Sometimes,
but not always, standing with those corporations are the American farmers who see GMOs as the best way around the natural risks of weather, pests and diseases that can harm their crops. They say these types of agricultural products are needed to ensure the Earth will be able to feed its growing population now and in the future. They oppose mandatory labeling of foods containing GMOs. Some see no problem with foods that don’t contain GMOs being able to be labeled that way. But hard-liners on the proGMO side say even those voluntary labels imply that there’s something wrong with using GMOs, and so they oppose them too. State-level labeling initiatives Almost two dozen states, including New Jersey have legislation pending that calls
for some type of labeling of foods containing GMOs. In New Jersey, the bills are S-1367 and A-2955. Connecticut recently became the first state to pass that kind of law. However, in a sort of back-stop against being labeled unusually tough on food businesses, it won’t become effective until at least four other states, and at least one of those bordering Connecticut, pass similar laws. Last year, California voters had a chance to require labeling on products containing GMOs. But after a big-money battle between food producers and labeling advocates – with a reported $44 million spent in advertising and lobbying by anti-labeling forces and $7 million spent by those advocating mandatory labeling of products containing GMOs – (Cont. on pg. 8)