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Title: Judge Rules that Really Stupid Vermont Law May Be Able to Force GMO-Labels on Food Companies
Source:
Reason Magazine
URL Source: http://reason.com/blog/2015/04/28/j ... es-that-vermont-may-be-able-to
Published: Apr 28, 2015
Author: Ronald Bailey
Post Date: 2015-04-29 04:03:28 by A Pole
Keywords: GMO, food, Monsanto
Views: 26757
Comments: 115
In 2013, the idiots, uh, distinguished solons of the Vermont legislature passed a law requiring food companies to label their products containing ingredients derived from modern biotech crops. The "findings" used to justify the legislation is simply the litany of scientific disinformation that has been peddled by anti-biotechnology extremists for years now. [...] The food manufacturers oppose the legislation arguing, among other things, that it violates their First Amendment rights by forcing them to engage in speech. In point of fact, the anti-biotech activists are not consumer advocates at all. What they are really aiming at is to confuse consumers so that they will misunderstand and treat labels identifying products as containing ingredients from biotech crops as warning labels. [...] As I pointed out in my article, The Top 5 Lies About Biotech Crops, every independent scientific body that has evaluated biotech crops has found them safe for people and the environment. ... As I have already shown above, the real purpose of GMO-labels is to deceive consumers. ... Is picking and choosing between producers really what you want your government to do? ... Finally, folks seeking kosher and halal foods are already well accomodated in the market, but I suppose some folks treat organic foods as a kind of sacrament. Of course, consumers who are bamboozled by the activist disinformation campaign against biotech crops have the perfect way to avoid foods of which they disapprove: Buy anything labeled organic. [...] However, the fight is not over. The case will now go to trial, where, let us hope, scientific evidence not activist lies will prevail. Or better yet, as the Washington Post editorial board has suggested, why not adopt the bill introduced in the House of Representatives that would establish a voluntary labeling system and prevent states and localities from going any further to indulge the GM labeling crowd.
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#1. To: A Pole (#0)
There should be nothing to fear from the truth. But since the companies fear it, fear telling it, fear putting it on the label, therefore, there IS something to fear, something they are hiding. The USDA should impose a labelling requirement: if there is any GMO in a food product, it should be so labelled, so that people know. People have a right to know if their food has been genetically modified, so they can decide whether they want to buy that or not.
Genetically modified foods, are they safe? The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) doesn’t think so. Former Pro-GMO Scientist Speaks Out On The Real Dangers of Genetically Engineered Food
Any person who has background in life science and is not dumb or dishonest knows that GMO is very dangerous.
Only members of the Inner Party have right for good food.
Ronald Bailey spokes like a true big g0vt, big business, big pharma shill.
Do they also have a right to know if their food had been irradiated when packaged? Or microwaved before being served at a restaurant? I heard you could die from radiation poisoning. I want a label so I can boycott those companies based on my ignorance. And isn't it true that electrical power generated by a nuclear power plant can contaminate my home with radiation if I unplug something and the radioactive electrons dribble out on to the floor? And that we're all going to die from man-made global warming?
Sounds like something a retarded 6 year old would ask.
Sounds like something a retarded 6 year old would ask. " Yes, it certainly does!
Si vis pacem, para bellum
Speaking of retarded 6-year-olds, you think GMO food will transform you into an ear of corn if you eat it? Kind of like "The Fly" but without the disintegrator-integrator?
EXACTLY !! Personally, I would like to see more information on food package labels. For example, I want to see more than "Distributed by XYZ Company". I would like to see where it was processed, manufactured, packaged, and where is the source of ingredients. If the product contains ingredients from, or was manufactured in China, I want to know !! I think that is only reasonable.
Si vis pacem, para bellum
If there is a substantial portion of the public that fears something and wants to know, yes, of course.
Even if the fears are groundless and can affect entire industries? I fear insect fragments and larvae. Should we label those? Let's see. Canned corn can have up to 2 or more 3 mm or longer larvae, cast skins, larval or cast skin fragments. Peanut butter is allowed up to an average of 30 or more insect fragments per 100 grams. Plus, I want a detailed list of what's in my sausages.
Iradiated food is bad. Not because of radiation but because of harmful destruction of the molecules
It is getting tedious, I can give you lessons but only if you pay for them
You are ignorant and clueless. Sorry.
Insects can be edible.
Yes. That's why we have all sorts of traffic rules and signs and stoplights. Fear of something happening. It's why we don't let people in some states buy raw milk. Fear of something happening (even though it doesn't happen in the states where people do buy raw milk). We do all sorts of things based on fear and perception. Cops are allowed to use force if they "fear for their safety", even when that fear isn't really reasonable. If a substantial number of people want a label on food to give them information, then if you want to enter the stream of commerce to make money selling your product, you will conform to the regulations that the community has placed upon your product. Otherwise, you cannot make money selling it. Simple. Sane.
Let's see. Canned corn can have up to 2 or more 3 mm or longer larvae, cast skins, larval or cast skin fragments. Peanut butter is allowed up to an average of 30 or more insect fragments per 100 grams. Plus, I want a detailed list of what's in my sausages. If enough people feel as you do, then yes, of course we can pass regulations that require these specific disclosures if you're going to sell your food into the stream of commerce. People care a great deal about GMO, for reasons beyond simply safe eating. They do not want the food produced at all, for fear of what is being released into the biosphere. One of the pressures on the bee populations has been the roundup-ready corn, which is turned into high fructose corn syrup, which in turn is part of the sugar water fed to bees. They eat pesticide in the sugar, and they weaken. I don't want to eat GMO food because it wasn't designed by God for me. And I REALLY don't want to eat precisely BECAUSE manufacturers want to hide it. Because they want to hide it, I intend to use the law to force full disclosure. Europe, led by the French, have put the kebosh on wholesale GMO planting and hormone-tainted meat in Europe. This blocks American produce. Americans scream, and the Americans can go fuck off. Want to sell meat and products in Europe? Want access to that market? Then certify it, on pain of crippling lawsuits and massive punitive damage and criminal prosecution if you lie, that your products have NO GMO in them, and your meat has NO Hormones. Otherwise, you have no right to make money entering the European stream of commerce. Americans should have the similar choice that Europeans do. We should be able to look at our food products and know if GMO has been used, or if the meat has hormones in it. And if a company lies, we should be able to bring multi-billion dollar class action lawsuits against the companies that lie to us, redistributing their illegally gained profits - PLUS punitive damages - to ourselves AND throw their executives' asses in prison for good measure. It's my food. I have the right to known what is in it. Since companies want to hide that, then good old democracy and the rule of law needs to jam criminal regulations with civil penalties right up their asses to force them to disclose. For awhile, the businesses who want to conceal have been able to. Unforunately, all sorts of allergies are EXPLODING in America (and not in Europe), and all sorts of pancreatic cancer is breaking out here (and not in France). So it's only a matter of time, because these hidden ingredients that politically connected Ag business has put in American food but hasn't been able to get into European food, has created a clear health differential between genetically similar populations in Europe and in the USA. The tobacco industry was able to hold the line on disclosures and warnings for a long time, but eventually they were brought to heel. And the difference between tobacco or soda pop, and things like corn and bread and milk and meat, is that the former things are luxuries, products that we always knew were bad for us, but the latter things are FOOD, and people know that Mark 1 Mod 0 God-made FOOD is safe. So if companies are tinkering with the God-crafted food and doing stuff to it, people have the right to know. And if Americans are getting a lot sicker, in weird ways, than Europeans, these hidden things in the food may well be to blame. People have the right to know what's in their food. And food purveyors who do not want to provide that information have the right to go sell insurance, but not to sell food into the stream of commerce. Now it is simply a matter of time until more and more and more people decide that they want to know what's in the food. It'll start in "liberal" states, and then be imposed federally. And people like you will scream and bellyache against it, and scream that the country is being lost to "socialists" or "crazies", as you lose yet another battle that you shouldn't have fought in the first place. There are battles worth fighting. The battle to allow huge companies to HIDE what they are putting in the food is not a battle that anybody should be fighting. THEY are fighting because it's big money to them. But the rest of US should want disclosure.
Is that a "selfie"?, LOL
Si vis pacem, para bellum
The fact that GMO companies are so desperate to avoid any GMO labeling tends to make me think we should have GMO labeling. Beyond that, I see no compelling reason at all (other than silencing anti-GMO opposition) for the courts to intervene against a lawfully passed bill in a particular state. Their state, their laws. And no compelling reason to override that just to pander to Monsanto and the Frankenfoods complex.
If the state's legislature or Congress or the FDA says so, yes.
Conversely, I've read that all the best brie cheeses from France cannot be imported to America because USDA demands all imported cheeses be pasteurized. And a real brie cheese in France by definition is not pasteurized. So all the American yuppies who love their brie are eating a Velveeta-type brie, not the real thing. Good for the goose, good for the gander. If we restrict brie based on food processing standards despite a long record of safety in Europe, how is it unfair for Europe to take a dismal view of Frankenfoods that have been around less than 2 decades and that constantly change in their makeup, seemingly a deliberate attempt by seed developers to obfuscate their actual content?
Given that the truth is that GMO food is safe and, according to you, there should be nothing to fear from the truth, why would labeling make any difference?
Farmers have been known to illegally make their own seeds from GMO crops, thereby bypassing the manufacturer. Slightly changing the genetic makeup allows the manufacturer to catch the cheaters.
They're desperate to avoid any GMO labeling because of the ignorant and unsubstantiated fear being generated around this product. They don't want another Alar scare.
So you're against grafting fruit trees to get a more nutritious product? That's the original GMO.
So for a 40 ounce jar (1120 grams), the label would say "Contains 330 Insect Parts -- But They're Edible." OK with you?
Yep.
That's right. Or rather, Europe is right: Frankefoods: bad. Unpasteurized cheese: good. The Americans, unfortunately, have to live with both Frankenfoods AND bad cheese, because of the power of lobbies. In short, we end up eating shit because it's profitable for Kraft and Monsanto, and they own Congress. Meanwhile people keel over from pancreatic cancer, and allergies and autism are exploding, here. The French get to eat better beef, good cheese, good food, and get to not die of pancreatic cancer and diabetes and peanut allergies and have autistic kids. So they win and we lose, across the board. We're idiots for putting up with it.
Nope. That's traditional. GMO is done in a lab, fiddling directly with the genes, inserting alleles. There's a fundamental difference that everybody sees. You sound like a lobbyist for Monsanto. Traditional agriculture is not the issue. Frankenfood is the issue, and it should be fully disclosed...if we're going to allow it at all. I like the French solution: don't LABEL it - BAN IT OUTRIGHT. That's better. Lower yields, healthier food, more farmers, more employment. Good all around.
The foods are not safe and not necessary. We don't need them and they should be banned outright. Since they won't be, they should be fully disclosed, so that people know, so they won't buy the products, so the companies that produce that shit will go bankrupt, fail and stop producing it.
Is that "the truth" you were referring to earlier?
Yep. And with the same results as grafting. "Lower yields, healthier food, more farmers, more employment. Good all around." Yeah, you know how we strive for those lower yields coupled with lower productivity. Oh, you left out higher prices. Just an oversight, I'm sure.
If most Americans could pull their attention away from the likes of Bruce Jenner or their iPhones made with slave labor long enough to look around the world they might be surprised that they know less about what they stuff into their pie holes than people in Kazakhstan, for example. Below is a full list of countries that require labeling of GMO foods (courtesy of The Center for Food Safety) And a thank you to all of those who are guinea pigging this brand new tech that hasn't been tested for long term effects. Oh- and if something goes wrong one day and you start losing your guts or something, don't bother asking for help. Ok? Thanks.
Exactlty! You stole my thunder. Let us label it.
A lie!
In other words, all of Europe, the entire industrialized world EXCEPT America and Canada, and most of the population of the world in general - even the hinterlands. Khazahkstan. Chad. People in Chad have the right to know if the food they're buying has GMOs in it. But Americans (and Canadians and Mexicans - the people in our local imperial orbit) don't. It's quite and indictment of us, really.
And other results too, that are unforseeable, and risky, and uneccessary. Ban GMOs. If you don't ban them outright, make their presence a label requirement.
See, I'm looking at that list of countries, and I'm noticing something. In a great many of those countries, people have average life spans longer than ours. And they have less incidence of all sorts of illnesses. There is something particularly toxic about the way we do things.
I don't care. If people want it let it be labelled. Either way, bugs are not GMO and we inhale living beings with every breath and have trillions of them in our bodies. Just keep GMO and Monsanto away from me.
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#2. To: A Pole (#0)
...every independent scientific body that has evaluated biotech crops has found them safe for people and the environment. ...
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts
#3. To: Deckard (#2)
Genetically modified foods, are they safe?
#4. To: Vicomte13 (#1)
People have a right to know if their food has been genetically modified, so they can decide whether they want to buy that or not.
#5. To: A Pole (#0)
What they are really aiming at is to confuse consumers so that they will misunderstand and treat labels identifying products as containing ingredients from biotech crops as warning labels.
#6. To: Vicomte13 (#1)
"People have a right to know if their food has been genetically modified, so they can decide whether they want to buy that or not."
#7. To: misterwhite (#6)
And isn't it true that electrical power generated by a nuclear power plant can contaminate my home with radiation if I unplug something and the radioactive electrons dribble out on to the floor?
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts
#8. To: Deckard (#7)
" And isn't it true that electrical power generated by a nuclear power plant can contaminate my home with radiation if I unplug something and the radioactive electrons dribble out on to the floor?
#9. To: Deckard (#7)
(Edited)
#10. To: Vicomte13 (#1)
" There should be nothing to fear from the truth. "
#11. To: misterwhite (#6)
Do they also have a right to know if their food had been irradiated when packaged? Or microwaved before being served at a restaurant?
#12. To: Vicomte13 (#11)
"If there is a substantial portion of the public that fears something and wants to know, yes, of course."
#13. To: misterwhite (#6)
Do they also have a right to know if their food had been irradiated when packaged?
#14. To: misterwhite (#9)
Kind of like "The Fly" but without the disintegrator-integrator?
#15. To: misterwhite (#12)
Even if the fears are groundless and can affect entire industries?
#16. To: misterwhite (#12)
Peanut butter is allowed up to an average of 30 or more insect fragments per 100 grams.
#17. To: misterwhite (#12)
Even if the fears are groundless and can affect entire industries?
#18. To: misterwhite (#12)
I fear insect fragments and larvae. Should we label those?
#19. To: misterwhite (#9)
#20. To: A Pole (#0)
#21. To: misterwhite (#6)
Do they also have a right to know if their food had been irradiated when packaged? Or microwaved before being served at a restaurant?
#22. To: Vicomte13 (#18)
Europe, led by the French, have put the kebosh on wholesale GMO planting and hormone-tainted meat in Europe. This blocks American produce. Americans scream, and the Americans can go fuck off. Want to sell meat and products in Europe? Want access to that market? Then certify it, on pain of crippling lawsuits and massive punitive damage and criminal prosecution if you lie, that your products have NO GMO in them, and your meat has NO Hormones. Otherwise, you have no right to make money entering the European stream of commerce.
#23. To: Vicomte13 (#1)
"People have a right to know if their food has been genetically modified, so they can decide whether they want to buy that or not."
#24. To: TooConservative (#22)
"and that constantly change in their makeup, seemingly a deliberate attempt by seed developers to obfuscate their actual content?"
#25. To: TooConservative (#20)
"The fact that GMO companies are so desperate to avoid any GMO labeling tends to make me think we should have GMO labeling."
#26. To: Vicomte13 (#18)
"I don't want to eat GMO food because it wasn't designed by God for me."
#27. To: A Pole (#16)
Peanut butter is allowed up to an average of 30 or more insect fragments per 100 grams.
Insects can be edible.
#28. To: TooConservative (#20)
The fact that GMO companies are so desperate to avoid any GMO labeling tends to make me think we should have GMO labeling.
#29. To: TooConservative (#22)
Conversely, I've read that all the best brie cheeses from France cannot be imported to America because USDA demands all imported cheeses be pasteurized. And a real brie cheese in France by definition is not pasteurized. So all the American yuppies who love their brie are eating a Velveeta-type brie, not the real thing.
#30. To: misterwhite (#26)
So you're against grafting fruit trees to get a more nutritious product? That's the original GMO.
#31. To: misterwhite (#23)
Given that the truth is that GMO food is safe and, according to you, there should be nothing to fear from the truth, why would labeling make any difference?
#32. To: Vicomte13 (#31)
"The foods are not safe ..."
#33. To: Vicomte13 (#30)
"GMO is done in a lab, fiddling directly with the genes"
#34. To: A Pole (#0)
Australia
Austria
Belarus
Belgium
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Bulgaria
Cameroon
China
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
El Salvador
Estonia
Ethiopia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Mali
Malta
Mauritius
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Peru
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Vietnam
http://www.justlabelit.org/right-to-know-center/labeling-around-the-world/
#35. To: misterwhite (#23)
(Edited)
Given that the truth is that GMO food is safe and, according to you, there should be nothing to fear from the truth, why would labeling make any difference?
#36. To: misterwhite (#26)
So you're against grafting fruit trees to get a more nutritious product? That's the original GMO
#37. To: Operation 40 (#34)
#38. To: misterwhite (#33)
Yep. And with the same results as grafting.
#39. To: misterwhite (#33)
#40. To: misterwhite (#27)
(Edited)
So for a 40 ounce jar (1120 grams), the label would say "Contains 330 Insect Parts -- But They're Edible."
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