Sometimes it seems that people don’t agree for the simple, and
in my view perverse, joy they appear to take in disagreeing. What is the big deal
about labeling food that has GMO ingredients? Alarmist, they say? If I want to
know what I’m putting in my mouth, that’s unreasonable? Big food companies have
been putting all kinds of things in my mouth for a long time. Yes, perhaps they
are on the package, but if I’m not a chemist, botanist, a food scientist or a
particularly curious person, I probably don’t know what they are. When we grew
or raised what we ate, we knew. Yes, we needed to get more efficient and grow
farming to feed the people. What we didn’t need to do was lose the connection
between people and their food that we’ve managed to lose in the process.
Its time to make that reconnection and it needs to be made in
many ways. This is one. We need to give people a true choice of what they
choose to eat. If you don’t want to eat
GMO foods and I do, we should be able to make that choice. If I want to save seed
and you want to grow GMO crops, you shouldn’t be able to sue me if my seed
becomes “contaminated” with genes from yours, or vice versa. Food prices, well,
there is another sticky wicket. And an important one that must be addressed. But
allowing information about if a food includes GMO ingredients, that seems to be
a simple choice.
From today's New York Times:
Concern over the possible health and environmental effects of
such food has prompted a move for labeling it, but scientists, farmers and
technology companies call the measures alarmist.
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