In 2007 presidential candidate Barack Obama didn’t tell his first campaign lie – but he may have told his biggest.
Obama promised that, as president, he’d require genetically modified foods to be labeled. He even declared that Americans like us “have a right to know what they’re buying.”
But it’s starting to look like the promises Obama made to GMO giants like Monsanto and Dow are the only ones that count.
Because a leaked letter from an Obama cabinet official has just proven that the administration is getting ready to move on GMO foods. But their new labeling ploy isn’t about protecting you or helping you make healthy food choices for your family.
In fact, the USDA is getting ready to unveil a sham label that would protect billion-dollar GMO special interests and could leave you and your state powerless to ever hold them accountable.
Food fight
A letter from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to USDA employees was recently leaked to the media. And it shows just how committed our government is to keeping you from ever being able to tell the difference between genetically modified and non-GMO foods.
In the letter, Vilsack outlined a plan to develop an official USDA label that would certify certain foods as being non-GMO. The plan allegedly originated from a request by a global company that wanted its corn and soy certified as non-GMO.
Ignoring the millions of Americans who want GMO foods labeled – and choosing to label non-GMO foods instead – may seem like a baby step in the right direction.
But the only step the feds are taking is right on the throats of consumers like us.
States have started moving forward with their own GMO labeling laws. And big food lobbies and their shills in Congress are desperate to block them – including the first such law set to go into effect in Vermont.
There’s a bill called HR-1599 in Congress right now that would keep states like Vermont from having their own GMO labeling laws once a federal standard is in place. Included in this so-called “DARK Act” (for Deny Americans the Right to Know) is a passage calling for the Secretary of Agriculture to establish “a non-bioengineered food certification program for agricultural products.”
In other words, once federal labels and standards are in place, major GMO corporations and lobbying groups could use them to fight and even strike down laws in states like Vermont. And the USDA’s sudden, renewed interest in labeling could be a step in that direction.
Even the USDA admits that its “Process Verified Seal” doesn’t involve too much verification, which would make it easy to take advantage of. There is no transparency regarding what the certification practices are and there aren’t any third-party standards involved.
Worse still, the label would be on products when they ship – but not when they’re put out for purchase.
The USDA label won’t move us one inch toward labeling GMO foods, and it won’t help you make more informed choices in the supermarket. And that’s exactly what major corporations like Monsanto and Dow want.
The plan is such a gift to the GMO industry – and is so riddled with holes – that even the Grocery Manufacturers Association isn’t speaking out against it. That’s the trade lobby that fought GMO labeling in California and Oregon and is attempting to overturn the Vermont law.
Our government hasn’t come to its senses on GMO labeling. In fact, it’s been giving the green light to GMO crops whenever asked to. The EPA even recently approved a dangerous herbicide called Enlist Duo that was specially made to be sprayed on two new GMO crops from Dow.
The fight over labeling has always been about politics, not what’s best for you. Food manufacturers have no problem labeling products that contain allergens, like corn, peanuts and soy. There’s no legitimate reason why they can’t tell us which foods contain GMO ingredients.
And every time you eat these Frankenfoods you’re not only getting small doses of the cancer-causing herbicide Roundup, but you’re also being made into a guinea pig in a giant experiment. Because no one really knows what their long-term health effects will be.
Foods are already being labeled non-GMO through third-party, non-government groups like the Non-GMO Project. The group works with food manufacturers, distributors, growers, and seed suppliers, and its seal is on 27,000 products, representing about 1,500 brands.
And these voluntary certifications look like the best we’re going to get for a while. Because the kind of labeling Vilsack is talking about sounds more like a dangerous ploy to preempt the real deal that millions of Americans are asking for.
Sources:
“Does the USDA really have a new non-GMO program?” May 14, 2015, Non GMO Project, nongmoproject.org
“USDA develops new GMO-free certification and label” Mary Clare Jalonick, May 14, 2015, Huffpost Healthy Living, huffingtonpost.com
