GMO labeling--Should it be required?

Great, but what does this have to do with labeling? It's good to know what is in your food, and where it comes from.

Yes, it does speak volumes about me being much smarter than you. Thank you for agreeing. That was big of you. It is a travesty that the party of stupid is actively trying to prevent consumers from knowing what is in their food and from where it comes.

It baffles me why some of you wouldn't want it labeled, you do realize you are going against your own best interests, right?

Could you please explain to me what is dangerous about crops being made resistant to disease and bugs? Why would someone need it to be labelled if it poses no tangible health risk?

Doesn't the "Organic" corporate labeling system already accomplish what you are looking for?

When I was a full time college student, I was on an extremely limited budget and I lived in Santa Barbara, one of the most expensive places to live in the world. I made it work. You can buy all of that stuff at Trader Joe's if you really want to, but there are other things that are cheap as well. For example, locally if I go to a big chain grocery store, I will spend about $8-$20 per spice. At Trader Joe's, all spices are $1.99-$2.99 and I am sure the quality is much better. I think of it in terms of this: Trader Joe's private label contains no articial flavors, no artifical preservatives, no synthetic colors, no MSG, no genetically modified ingredients, and no partially hydrogenated oils. That is with all of their products and when you compared that with similar products from big chain grocery stores, Trader Joe's almost always comes out cheaper. In addition, organic foods at Trader Joe's are much cheaper than the organic products found in big chain grocery stores. The issue at least at this point is that we aren't even really eating real food at this point and as humans we need to move away from that.

Can you even read?

Sorry, scientific argument > politics argument, you lost, you're a moron, deal with it.

Some people seem to defend corporations and government on instinct. Then again, even if nothing gets labeled, we can just not buy it.

@N30F3N1X: lost what? I can't lose an argument that I didn't even make. My comment was an observation, not a argument. You just straw manned me, then made yourself look like an idiot. Lol.

GMO or not, I want to know what's in my food.

Unfortunately, its a sad fact that any decision made will not be made for scientific reasons, it will be made for political ones.

Thus why GMO's are not labeled and the possibility of a requirement has been banned...

:roll:

I just want to see a sticker that says "THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS GMO's." so I can easily avoid it. Right now there is nothing on any product we know are GMO, so I'm not sure how you can say they're in any loop.

You just don't seem to get it gerg or you just ignore peoples concern. I don't want to eat GMO's so how exactly can I avoid them? Looking at the label...? Nope, that me zero information about GMO content. These scumbags hide as much as they can to deceive anyone who doesn't want to take part in their experiment.

If someone wished to stay away from GMO's, they have to do a heck of a lot of looking into the company they buy from and all their products, there's a ton of mixing and matching when it comes to the GMO content and none of it is labeled.

@doozie78: Here is something to think about, the fact that you do eat GMO crops (and have done so for years), as well as your family and friends, without getting sick or any signs of negative consequences should tell you something about their safety.

Again I have nothing against the idea of GMO crops being labeled as such, but I have zero hangups about consuming them. This is in no small part due to the fact that I am incredibly healthy despite eating them on a daily basis, but also because science shows that lack of trepidation to be well founded.

Alrighty then, none of you have a problem with foods being labeled "Contains GMO", which is exactly what many people would like to see. Problem solved.

Now we just need to make these companies comply so we can all eat what we choose.

@doozie78: No, I have no problem with gmo crops being labeled as such. But don't pretend that I speak for everyone here either.

I don't see a problem with it being labeled.. But this claim of GMO's being harmful to you is absolute bullshit, bordering on anti vaccination hysteria.. GMO's are the most tested products on the market place, so before you start questioning the safety of them, you may want to start questioning the safety of the vehicle your drive.. Because chances are it has been less tested than what your eating.. Now that doesn't mean there are bad things that have happened with GMO's such as what policies of monsoto, but the organic farming business is a absolute crock of shit.. Organic farming not only use pesticides and herbicides, but their farming practices are actually MORE harmful to the environment as shown with recent studies.. Finally GMO's are the only way we are going to thrive as a species.. Organic crops are not only less durable but you cannot grow as much, we need GMO's to sustain the food on our planet... With GMO's being widespread for well over 20 years now, and our life expentency only going UP.. Even if it may be harmful, the impact is not affecting the improvements we are receiving in other fields.. Until you guys some how solve the problem with food shortages and a rapidly changing climate, your organic foods movement will become a niche in which you pay out the ass for similar quality food.. So what ever makes you sleep at night.

Also furthermore, eating organic isn't going to some how make you healthy.. Fitness, active life style, and a balanced diet will.. In less you have EXTREME health problems or are trying to push the levels human physical perfection, your just another fucking fad follower who some how thinks they are going to lose weight and be healthy because they happened to buy the same shit with "organic" plastered across it for upwards to two times more.. The same kind of people who look at the earlier generations and say "Hey those people were so healthy because they didn't have all that artificial processed shit we eat every day now".. Yeah well they also were huge smokers, dosed everything in pesticides (that are now banned) like ddt, and didn't sit on their asses for 12 hours a day.

Though I may agree with you, spouting off about your self-proclaimed intelligence on the internet just makes you seem like a fucking idiot.

I was making a general stance that our foods should be labeled. Location too since I think they're trying to remove that.

I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about what GMO's are. They are no more unhealthy for you than any other food out there. They arent a chemical or artificially processed substance. They're just fruits and vegetables from plants that have been bred for certain beneficial traits. In fact, most of the GMO's are probably better for you than their "natural" counterparts.

GMO's allow many plants to survive in conditions that they otherwise wouldnt and allow for better and more productive harvests in many countries that need them.

The issues with GMO's isnt one of health. You dont have to fear eating them. They arent chemicals, hormones, etc. The issues with GMO's are their environmental impact and the uncertainty of what they could do to other plants, species, etc. You can label for that reasons, just like free range chicken, etc. labels.

There are many products labelled as "non-GMO". You can also do a little research if you are interested and find out which brands use them and which don't. But honestly, you're more likely to be exposed to pesticides and other chemicals on "naturally" grown fruits and vegetables. Many gmo's are bred such that they are resistant to pests and other vermin whereas non gmo's arent and require pesticide treatments.

Well, it was in jest, but I am still smarter than you...

Well at the moment you could look for products that say they are GMO-free

I don't want to eat anything handled by a person called Jeff. So there should be labels on everything made in a factory/farm with a worker called Jeff.

You're the one who choose to have ridiculous and illogical eating habits. So if it's extra work for you then tough titty, you made the bed now sleep in it.

That's not even close to a similar comparison, they're orders of magnitude of different. There's nothing illogical thing about the situation. This industry uses patent-based control of GM crops to restrict independent research.

It's pretty comical how adamant pro GMO folks are to forcing EVERYONE else to eat them. Thankfully I can find a lot of "NON GMO" foods at the stores.

No, they are not orders of magnitude of different. You have no realistic basis upon which you can say something like that, hence why your horseshit argument is illogical. Patent-based control works exactly like any other intellectual property ever did. Look at end-user software licenses, you can use the software, you can't open it up and copy pieces of it to put in your own software. Or at car components, industrial tools, even shoes. You are making a conspiracy out of something that has been the standard for over a century.

And yes, we are adamant because we have science on our side. Just like CFC-based refrigerants and propellents were banned due to their extreme effect on the ozone layer, or like fossil carbon-based energy are being replaced by renewable energy sources, or vaccines becoming mandatory, GMOs are factually better than non GMOs plants of the same kind and should be pushed to replace their counterparts.

Stop looking at movies and get yourself an actual scientific background. Having an antiscientific position is embarrassing.

No, if companies want to justify their higher prices by advertising non-GMO for idiots who believe that sort of crap then let them.

I also have not seen any data determining whether or not Jeff washed his hands after using the restroom at his place of employment. I would like a sticker with that on my food.

I don't really care either way personally.

Whether it is GM or not I'll still eat it. I doubt I'd read the labels anyway, just throw it in the basket. Genes are just chemistry designed to code protein production and turn production on or off in an organism. I don't know what people are thinking is going to happen when this happens but it sure isn't going to be anything terrible.

Well put it this way an organic farmer smearing sh*t all over his field that is teaming with parasites sounds just as bad to me.

For example they could give crops a protein that stops ice crystals forming when it is below freezing (biological anti-freeze) meaning we get better yields of vegetables for longer periods each year. As long as they test the protein they are trying to introduce in organisms first I have literally no issue with it.

More food for everyone using the same amount of farmland sounds great to me.

Can also be used to make crops more resistant to drought as well. For use in harsher climates. Africa perhaps? Where people are in need of more food and don't have much water to make it happen.

Most proteins are broken down into amino acids during digestion anyway. It isn't like pumping cattle with drugs which will f*ck up your brain or make you infertile or something. Most proteins don't make it past your stomach in the first place. Food standard agencies will test this stuff to within an inch of its life before it is allowed to be commercialised in most countries.

What I'm looking forward to in fact is for a commercialised artificial meat. Get rid of the cattle farms, taking up copious amounts of land and producing methane and just make it in a factory. I'd say it is probably cleaner and safer than natural meat. Just need to see what it taste like.

Why not? What's there to hide?

I mean, you guys can mow down on all the GMO's you want, thats cool. I think we should also have the right to not eat them.

So a study found that people are generally indifferent towards GMO food labelling.

Link

Then purchase food that says it's GMO free

That's where I am.

I've yet to hear a good reason stated as to why GMOs are bad. I've heard arguments about why CERTAIN GMOs may be bad, but that's no reason to disparage GMOs as a group. In fact, the reasons I've heard against GMOs aren't related to them being GMOs outside of the fact that gene manipulation is how they got their disputed qualities in the first place.

I don't care one way or the other. All of the food we eat is genetically modified.

Yes but only if they tell us exactly what constitutes GMO or organic or free range or any of the other bs terms they slap on labels to market to halfwits.

that'll never happen, they just passed a law in US saying they don't have to disclose where food comes from, expect a lot of fake foods being imported from China in near future

Sure, in any normal country. But in USA there seems to be mass histeria against GMOs..I guess you people just don't trust your goverment enough to assume whatever is being allowed to be sold is harmless? Even then though...ban seems like pretty pointless thing. The non GMO companies will just band together and create an universal "no-GMO inside" sticker and it will have the same effect. Plus there's plenty of people who will assume that if goverment and companies are working so hard to remove mentions of GMO from products then it means there's something really bad about them. Otherwise, why hide it?