The Food and Drug Administration substantially restricts food companies’ freedom to promote their wares as not-genetically-modified, although quite a lot of grocery shoppers are (perhaps misguidedly) interested in making product decisions on that basis. Thom Lambert at Truth on the Market detects the symptoms of regulatory “capture.”
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I think a fair compromise would be to allow GM-free labeling, as long as it’s also disclosed on the package that that doesn’t mean anything as it regards the safety or nutrition of the product in equally large type.
Mr. Burgundy above has a good point. But some, maybe most, consumers would ask why the food is labeled is there isn’t controversy. They would then err on the side of safety. People in Westchester County NY being long in money and short in brains go for the “organic” nonsense. They drive me nuts.
So far all evidences suggest that GM foods are not harmful, and that non-GM foods therefore are no better.
It is then a backhanded way to make a false claim by casting aspersions and false light on the other products. A statement “this product contains no GM food” may be superficially true, but the intent of making such a statement clearly is to convey a between the lines message that is factually false.
Gasman,
While I harbor no concern over GM foods, I disagree with your premise. I have many friends who for health or religious reasons want to know what is in their food. To wit, the recent revelation that Peeps are made with gelatin made from pork would be of consummate interest to those who are allergic to pork or muslim or jewish. Dairy boards in more than one state have attempted to outlaw the use of “our cows don’t get daily doses of antibiotics” on cartons of milk. Why would the government care, after all when it comes to food stuffs aren’t they in the business of give the consumer ALL the information so they can make informed decisions? Or are they trying to give special protection to the highest bidder? And since all politics is about the money, I’ll go with the latter.
Similarly, I have been told that many years ago, tuna canners advertised that it doesn’t turn pink in the can, implying that salmon did.
And let’s not forget xkcd’s proposal to start advertising cereal as “asbestos-free”.
depends on what you mean by “genetically (un)modified”. Humans have been modifying plants and animals in various ways for many hundreds of years.