Nutrition in key to good health so I wanted to share some important news happening now regarding our food.
GMO “DARK ACT” BILL HR.1599/S.2609 did NOT pass!
NOW WE ARE HOPING THAT OUR CONGRESSPERSONS AND SENATORS WILL PASS A MANDATORY GMO LABELLING BILL JUST LIKE THE 64 OTHER COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD THAT REQUIRE IT INCLUDING EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, CHINA AND RUSSIA!
If this is to happen, then your Senator and Congressperson needs to hear from you!! For their Washington Phone Number go to: https://www.congress.gov/members
March 1, HR.1599/S.2609-the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act, is somewhat of a misnomer, as it is known as the DARK Act by consumers (Denying Americans the Right to Know) about the GMO ingredients in our food.
This is critical for you to know because what this bill wanted to do, if it had passed, was 3 main things: this would prevent any GMO labelling in this country, make it harder for companies to voluntarily label their foods made with Genetically Modified Ingredients- as an example, Campbell’s soup recently announced that it was going to label whether their soup contained any GMO ingredients. If this bill had passed, it would have been harder for Campbell’s to do so. AND NEGATE the laws that have already been passed in VT, ME, CT and others across this country.
Other important things to know about this bill:
- The most important reason to label foods as having GMOs or not is that these seeds are produced with the ability to withstand the use of pesticides. Glyphosate is the main pesticide that is used on these GMO crops and Glyphosate has been associated with many health issues including GI dysfunction, liver and kidney dysfunction and kidney failure, neurological disorders such as autism and parkinsons disease as well as cancer. Because the pests have become so resistant to the glyphosate, they are now using a combination pesticide that mixes glyphosate with 2,4-D which was an ingredient used in Agent Orange in Vietnam. This is concerning especially with young children and teenagers whose bodies and brains are growing and changing and the cells are dividing rapidly. There are 5 main GMO crops in the US: Corn, Soybeans, Canola, Sugar Beets and Cottonseed. Corn and Soybean are almost ubiquitous in many of our food products today.
- It’s ironic that this is happening in the US where we produce a lot of food because this is not something that is new or novel. There are actually 64 countries that already have Mandatory laws that require that GMO labels are put on their food products including Russia, China and most of Europe. The European Union actually passed Mandatory GMO labeling laws in 1997…if it can be done for those countries, certainly it can be done for the citizens in the US who are requesting labelling.
- There was a proposal that was debated about putting bar codes on the food so that consumers could scan the label with their smart phone to figure out whether they contained GMO’s,…it seems to me that companies could certainly state up front whether they have GMO ingredients in them or not especially since 90% of Americans want to know what is in their food and believe that food should have labels which state whether there are GMO ingredients in them.
- GMO labeling has been touted as increasing the cost of food which just is not true. Companies change their labels all the time without significant increases in their cost.
Until next time, Living the Good. Better. Best. Life through W.E.L.L.N.E.S.S.