Russia Moves to Toughen GMO Food Sanctions, Introduces Fines for Vague Labeling

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Heather Callaghan

Close on the heels of  their new food import bans, Russia is enacting stricter methods to keep GMOs off the table.

Russia has a consumer safety watchdog group called Rospotrebnadzor - also known as the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare.

Russia's Government Legislative Commission has just approved Rospotrebnadzor’s proposal to further toughen sanctions and for the introduction of fines for unclear or inappropriately labeled genetically modified food, RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday.

Oregon to Vote on GMO Food Labeling This November

Heather Callaghan

Earlier this year, two Oregon cities voted at the ordinance level to ban GMO cultivation.

This November, Oregon state residents will have the ability to vote on whether they want genetically modified foods labeled - or not.

There has been an outpouring of interest among Oregonians to vote "Yea" on GMO labeling as evidenced by the petition to get the issue on the ballot.

Colorado to Decide on GMO Labeling on Election Day

KDVR

DENVER — The movement to require food manufacturers to identify genetically modified organisms (GMO) is picking up support and may be an issue for voters to decide this November.

Members of a coalition fighting for GMO labeling held a rally at the state capitol then marched to the Secretary of State’s office Monday.

They have collected more than 170,000 signatures on a petition in an effort to get the issue on the ballot.  They say they well surpassed the 86,105 signatures required.

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BOOM: FOX News Airs GMO Truth

FOX

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Big Food to Support a Forgiving Federal GMO Labeling Bill

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Why a Federal GMO Labeling Law Could Be Worthless

They don’t want you to know what goes into your “food.”

Aaron Dykes and Melissa Melton

Prop 37 – which aimed to mandate GMO food labels in California– was a big showdown battle where mounting public concern was ultimately defeated by the power of big industry money. The momentum for labeling genetically modified ingredients, and bringing about greater food transparency is being co-opted by Big Organic players meeting at the table with the biggest biotech and Big Food corporations.



These opposing sides have planned a compromise around a federal GMO labeling scheme that likely will lack teeth and render useless any state-level labeling laws that would put in place real restrictions. Melissa Melton and Aaron Dykes give examples of countries where labeling laws are circumvented by loopholes that require only soy and corn to be labeled, while letting slip through oils and other combination frankenfoods.

The infiltration and takeover of regulatory agencies and policy making engines in government, along with legal prowess to write exemptions and loopholes, has allowed the major biotech corps – including Monsanto – to flip the idea of a food regulators on its head and convert watchdogs into collaborators who aid in funding and approving GM crops, as well as give cover to keep the public in the dark about what is transpiring behind the scenes with food.

AARON DYKES AND MELISSA MELTON created TruthstreamMedia.com, where this article first appeared, as an outlet to examine the news, place it in a broader context, uncover the deceptions, pierce through the fabric of illusions, grasp the underlying factors, know the real enemy, unshackle from the system, and begin to imagine the path towards taking back our lives, one step at a time, so that one day we might truly be free...

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Connecticut Lawmakers Vote to Label GMO Foods

Activist Post

Fresh off global protests against Monsanto, the Connecticut House and Senate agreed on a bill to label genetically modified foods.

"There is mounting scientific evidence showing that genetically modified foods are harmful to our health," said Senate President Donald E. Williams (D-Brooklyn). "There's an increasing avalanche of public support (for labeling GMOs)." 

The original legislation would have made GMO labeling mandatory in Connecticut by 2016, but a compromise was made this week to add a trigger to the law requiring other state's participation.

Monsanto Wins Fight to Take Away State Food Labeling Rights

YouTube

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) fought hard to give his state and others the right to label GMO foods, but faced nonsensical opposition from Monsanto-bought Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). Did reason win?


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Codex Alimentarius and GM Food Guidelines, Pt. 1

Updated excerpt from Codex Alimentarius -- The End of Health Freedom 

Available Here

Brandon Turbeville

Over the last two years, I have written extensively about the Codex Alimentarius guidelines and how they relate specifically to vitamin and mineral supplements, food irradiation, and the use of Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH).

I have also detailed the history and workings of the international organization as well as many of the current day to day manifestations of Codex guidelines as they appear in domestic policy. 

However, there is yet another area in which Codex guidelines will play a major role in the development of food policy – namely, the proliferation of Genetically Modified Food.

The Codex committee that serves as the main battleground for the consideration of GM food is the Codex Committee on Food Labeling. This committee is extremely relevant due to the fact that it can effectively reduce the power of the consumer to virtually nothing if it decides not to force companies or countries to label their GM food, thus removing the ability of the consumer to boycott and/or avoid those products. While it is well-known that public sentiment is unimportant to those at the top, governments and corporations tend to pay more attention when votes and sales reflect that sentiment. However, if Codex continues on its’ way to allowing unlabelled GM food onto the international market, the repercussions of consumer reaction will be entirely neutralized. 

A brief discussion of the history of Codex in terms of GM food is necessary here to understand the direction that the organization is moving towards in regards to it. 

Kucinich Calls Out Monsanto About GMO Labeling

Dennis Kucinich

H.R.3553 - Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act

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America Wants GMO Labeled

Justlabelit.org

Make your support for labeling GMOs, sign petition here.

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Monsanto Launches Massive Campaign to Stop GMO Labeling

Lisa Garber
Activist Post

We’ve gone on at great lengths discussing the dangers of genetic modification. Monsanto’s GMO corn has been linked to weight gain and organ function disruption, while GMO crops and pesticides destroy our farmland and environment. According to the Alliance of Natural Health, the grandchildren of rats fed GMO corn were born sterile. GMO is just one of those things to avoid, but with our own government in bed with Monsanto, it’s not easily done. Monsanto has recently launched a proverbial war against the open labeling of genetically modified foods, and only through activism and awareness can it be overcome.

The People Versus GMO

In February of this year, Vermont contemplated the Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act. The proposed bill prohibits GMO food producers from using keywords like “natural,” “naturally made,” “naturally grown,” and “all natural” to describe GMO ingredients and products. In the same month, the National Conference of State Legislatures reported that nearly 20 states were considering similar programs. Public surveys and studies also show a whopping 90 percent of the U.S. in favor of such practices.

With no labeling, few realize they are eating genetically modified foods

Some consumers are concerned that such foods may pose health risks and say manufacturers should be required to identify them for consumers

Monica Eng
LA Times

When a team of activists wearing white hazmat suits showed up at a Chicago grocery store to protest the sale of genetically modified foods, they picked an unlikely target: Whole Foods Market.

Organic foods, by definition, can’t knowingly contain genetically modified organisms, known as GMOs. But genetically modified corn, soy and other crops have become such common ingredients in processed foods that even one of the nation’s top organic food retailers says it hasn’t been able to avoid stocking some products that contain them.

“No one would guess that there are genetically engineered foods right here in Whole Foods,” said Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director of the Organic Consumers Association, which organized the protest. The activists dramatically trashed a battery of well-known health food brands outside the store, including Tofutti, Kashi and Boca Burgers.

Though people have been modifying foodstuffs through selective breeding and other methods for centuries, genetically modified crops differ in that the plants grow from seeds in which DNA splicing has been used to place genes from another source into a plant. In this way, the crop can be made to withstand a weed-killing pesticide, for example, or incorporate a bacterial toxin that can repel pests.

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After 20 years, nearly everyone still wants GM food to be labeled

Rady Ananda, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

At this MSNBC poll, over 40,000 people have voted strongly in favor of labeling genetically modified foods: 96% of all respondents.

But, a review of several polls going back to 1994 reveals that the numbers have always been high — the vast majority of people have always wanted GM labels. That biotech foods have remained unlabeled for nearly 20 years in the US reveals a deliberate and willful refusal by regulatory agencies to serve the will of the people, instead opting to abet industry profits through public deception.

The 96% rating from MSNBC’s casual survey does represent a jump from a scientific poll conducted in 2003 by University of Maine and The Ohio State University (and partly funded by the US Dept. of Agriculture), where 85% of respondents said they wanted GM foods labeled. Researchers also noted:

“Polls have emphasized that a majority of consumers in the United States (US) desire GMFs to be labeled (Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, 2001), and legislation has been entered at both the federal and state levels. For example, HR 3377 and S 2080—the “Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Acts”—were introduced into the US House of Representatives and Senate, respectively. In addition, at least seven states have debated labeling and marketing requirements for GM foods (Pollack, 2001). Further, the current lack of harmonization of policies across countries also makes GM food labeling an international trade issue.”

More in line with that 2003 study, a few weeks ago, a CBS/New York Times poll found that 87% want GM foods labeled. This prompted food columnist Mark Bittman to ask, “Why Aren’t G.M.O. Foods Labeled?” He finds it “unbelievable … that the F.D.A. and the U.S.D.A. will not require any of these products, or foods containing them, to be labeled as genetically engineered, because they don’t want to ‘suggest or imply’ that these foods are ‘different.’”

But they are, Blanche, they are. That’s part of what goes into the difference between organic and not.

The European Commission on Agriculture reports that a full:

“84% of the respondents favoured [GM labels] in a 1995 USDA survey in New Jersey; 93% in the 1997 Novartis survey; and 81% in the Time magazine poll. In Canada, a 1994 survey showed that 83% to 94% of Canadians polled want labelling on foods that are produced using biotechnology.”

It should be no big surprise that since the introduction of GM foods, the majority of people want GM labeling. Who wouldn’t want to know how their food’s been adulterated? It’s simply a matter of ethics. Even if all the GMO naysayers are wrong and transgenic food (and the chemicals used to grow it) causes no harm to the biosphere, we have the right to know what’s in our food. We have the right to choose to eat what we want, and reject what we don’t want to eat.

More importantly, if governments fail to abide the wishes of free people who created them, does that not define tyranny?

Rady Ananda holds a B.S. in Natural Resources from The Ohio State University’s School of Agriculture.  Her work has appeared in several online and print publications. Using years of editorial experience and web publishing, Rady now promotes the ideas and work of a select group of quality writers and artists at Food Freedom and COTO Report. 

 

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