Food Safety Magazine - June/July 2013
Food Safety Magazine - June/July 2013
Food Safety Magazine - June/July 2013
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genetically modified foods<br />
(continued from page 27)<br />
One concern would have been segregating<br />
product with the GMO label<br />
for the 10 percent of the national market<br />
that California represents. Interestingly,<br />
many of these same products are<br />
sold in the similarly populated Canadian<br />
market. However, it is recognized<br />
that the international border makes a<br />
much better barrier against inadvertent<br />
MIT 1000<br />
movement of goods between jurisdictions,<br />
than, say, between Oregon and<br />
northern California.<br />
The passage of legislation of an individual<br />
state requiring such a GMO designation<br />
on food products remains in<br />
the realm of the possible. With the precedent<br />
set by Whole <strong>Food</strong>s to label all<br />
products containing GMOs by 2018, it<br />
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will become even more dificult for politicians<br />
to avoid the issue. Few consumers<br />
will realize that this action by Whole<br />
<strong>Food</strong>s with their existing organic-centric<br />
focus is a solid business decision, but<br />
would be an immense challenge for individual,<br />
conventional food retailers.<br />
Given this scenario, perhaps the<br />
food industry should drive the agenda<br />
on GMO labeling instead of accepting<br />
a regime designed by ouitsiders. It could<br />
be a simple declaration “May contain<br />
GMO ingredients” on products containing<br />
soy, corn, canola and cottonseed oil<br />
except those that are certified organic.<br />
The “may” is important because there<br />
is no guarantee that the product does<br />
indeed contain GMOs, and the use of<br />
“Contains no GMOs” should not be<br />
permitted because “Certified Organic”<br />
is GMO-free. The parallel to this is the<br />
prohibition of labeling pork and poultry<br />
products “Hormone free” because by<br />
law, the practice is not permitted.<br />
Such an initiative, while probably<br />
heresy to the industry today, would address<br />
the right-to-know movement and<br />
would go some distance in silencing<br />
critics of the entire food industry who<br />
maintain that GMO transparency is in<br />
short supply. Furthermore, with a vast<br />
array of products thus labeled, the typical<br />
consumer will most likely behave as<br />
do their European counterparts and ignore<br />
it just as they are doing with much<br />
of the existing ingredient information.<br />
Summary<br />
In conclusion, GMO technology uptake<br />
by the global agricultural industry<br />
has been profound. Its overwhelming<br />
and continued dominance of a few key<br />
commodities has led to its nearubiquitous<br />
presence in a host of food<br />
products. As there is considerable evidence<br />
of consumer apathy, in all probability<br />
as time passes, GM foods will<br />
join the heirloom organic tomato as an<br />
uncontested element of our diets. •<br />
Maurice J. Hladik, an accredited farmer, agriculture<br />
economist and authority on farming and food consumption,<br />
is the author of Demystifying <strong>Food</strong> from<br />
Farm to Fork.<br />
74 F o o d S a f e t y M a g a z i n e