A group of Lefties, environmentalists and food fetishists in California recently put an initiative on the ballot to label foods as being genetically modified (GMO), when they are.
More than 20 years ago I started an organization called the Project to Label Gene-Altered Food.
I began the organization after listening to a number of Boston intellectuals tell me that genetically modified food was the same as all previously developed foods using selection and breeding.
I knew that was nonsense. No breeder could put a pig gene into a banana. But there were genetically modified foods with that combination.
Because the metaphor being used was so ridiculous I decided it was important to warn people that they were eating genetically modified foods in order to follow the actual population risk of genetically modified food. To follow it for several decades. That would be the only way to detect serious problems if there were any.
I learned the genetic food and animal field. I met all of the important activists on all sides of the issue. I influenced the Japanese legislation on the issue of genetically modified organisms.
At the same time, the Department of Agriculture was examining the definition of ‘organic’ in order to create a national standard. A national standard was intended to replace the many state organic certification organizations.
My organization immediately joined the campaign and got my allies to do the same. (Here is the letter my organization sent.) We realized that by excluding genetically modified food from the term organic we would accomplish our goal of having a category of food (page 12) that had no genetically modified components.
The campaign to label organic as excluding genetically modified food along with irradiated food and urban sewage waste was joined by several hundred thousand people. The largest public campaign in the history of the Department of Agriculture.
For the past 15 years, organically labelled food automatically excludes genetically modified foods.
So, what would legislation labeling all food with genetically modified organisms do that is beneficial.? Nothing. It increases the cost of all foods.
In the twenty years genetically modified foods have been on the market no problems have been detected. The issue is now moot.Increasing the cost of foods, of course, impacts poor people more than anyone else. But environmentalists, Lefties and food fetishists don't care about anyone else. And they are not willing to shop for all their own products at Whole Foods.
That is the source of the title of this blog.
At least until now my efforts have been successful. ‘Organic’ in the U.S. still excludes genetically modified food and we are not burdened by additional costs of labelling all other foods.