Opinion: GMO labeling a disaster

By Mischa Popoff

Why is Washington working on a national, voluntary, GMO-labeling law? Aren’t corporations and individuals already free to label their products to let their customers know whether they contain GMOs? Supporters of the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 say we need to replace state-level GMO labeling initiatives with a single national law. But, unless it’s drastically altered, the bill being considered will be used by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack as a back door, bypassing Congress, to institute European-style threshold limits on GMO content in organic food, which will result in legal mayhem across the American heartland.

Threshold GMO level

Without doubt, the single most threatening part of Kansas Republican Rep. Mike Pompeo’s HR 1599 is the institution of a maximum permissible or threshold level for GMO content in organic food. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program, written, edited and finalized by organic industry stakeholders during the Clinton Administration, organic crops can currently only be contaminated by synthetic pesticides or fertilizers — substances that are known to cause harm above certain crucial levels......To Read More....