Comments on: Learn more about GMO labeling

By: Amy Pearson

Amy Pearson — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:17:28 +0000

If you see the ‘USDA Organic’ label you can be assured that 95% or more of the ingredients found in that product is certified organic. Is 95% good enough for you? I say a product is other organic or it isn’t.

By: Jan

Jan — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:42:38 +0000

Shane: If you read my letter more closely, you will see that I acknowledge the use of some pesticides in the raising of organic produce. The difference is in the type, degree and invasive quality of pesticides used where GMOs are concerned–it is significant– and all you have to do to see the difference between the two is to compare the soil base on an organic farm to the soil base on a GMO operation: Living soil and living eco-system vs. dead soil and system.

Further :”Most plant based GMOs are used…to extend shelf life.” True. The shelf life of a dead thing is limitless and GMO plants on your grocery store shelf are dead things that last indefinitely–and perhaps in your body also. Great for profit margins but… health benefits?

By: Shane Tucker

Shane Tucker — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:44:03 +0000

@Jan – Let’s not kid ourselves, GMOs were mainly created for the purpose of allowing the bio-techs to sell more pesticides,

If you are eating organic, then you aren’t worried about chemical based pesticides. You must mean the microbial based pesticides, which enjoy significant use amongst organic farmers -without them, there woulddn’t be organic farming on any scale big enough to matter. Most plant based GMOs are used to increase yield, improve taste or health benefits or extend shelf life.

By: Jan

Jan — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:41:20 +0000

@Rich: Saying that you agree with me is a little misleading isn’t it? But that is in line with the rest of your letter–misleading throughout. It is dangerous for you, or for any of us, to become an automatic apologist for technologies–any and all technologies?–in a sort of mindless knee-jerk fashion, because technology is the “newest, latest, coolest” or whatever. Sometimes, we must acknowledge, there may come a point where a technology not only is useless, but also is downright dangerous, and the technological manipulation of our food supply has arrived at that point. Seed selection? Fine. Hybridization? Fine. Grafting? Fine. Injecting a foreign species’ cells into the cells of totally different organism (i.e. flounder into tomato), often by using bacteria and viruses that invade the tissue for the purpose of spreading pesticides throughout the “edible” part of the plant–along with the bacteria themselves–NOT so fine. Also, the farming techniques that you mention are sustainable, and non-harmful to the earth. Let’s not kid ourselves, GMOs were mainly created for the purpose of allowing the bio-techs to sell more pesticides, as opposed to organic farming which uses little, to no, pesticides. Millions of tons of pesticides have been poured onto this earth, and into the GMO plants some of us eat (60% of processed foods contain GMOs, but until they are labeled who knows which ones?), into the deadened soil, into the water. This devastation can be reversed, if we are allowed to “vote with our dollars”, choosing, for those who wish it, to not buy LABELED GMO foods at the grocery store. http://www.labelgmos.org. @Rich: I am not fearful, I am hopeful!

By: Rich Rifkin

Rich Rifkin — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:01:50 +0000

I agree with this entirely. All GMOs need to be labeled. They should be labeled “perfectly safe.”

Further, all foods that we eat which would not exist but for the inputs of humans need to be labeled as well. Consumers should be warned that “nectarines do not exist naturally. Their genes were manipulated by fruit breeders.”

Virtually every hybrid crop of corn, tomatoes, potatoes, plums, apples, pears and so on should come with the same label: “perfectly safe to eat, but its genes were manipulated by breeders over hundreds of years in order to increase the sweetness or the color or the size or some other aspect of this food’s genes.”

When you pick up an orange carrot, you should be told explicitly that “orange carrots never occurred in nature. Man bred them by selecting various genes to make your carrots orange.”

The only mistake in labeling GMOs would be to single them out and think that their genetic manipulation makes them less safe than the manipulation of the genes in virtually all our other foods or drinks.

If you have an abiding fear of genetic manipulation, you probably need to avoid those organic “fair trade” coffees which are so popular in Davis. Those breeds of coffee plants all are genetic hybrids which did not exist in nature.