The September issue of Consumer Reports will be hitting the newsstands any day now and you may want to pick up a copy. It’s worth checking out. It includes a list of foods that contain genetically-modified ingredients. I haven’t seen it yet, but I think this list will run to many pages of fine print. It may be difficult to read. On one hand, Americans are blessed with copious bounty on our supermarket shelves; we seem to have more food choice than any other nation on earth. On the other hand, many of those choices leave us with little choice. Between 60 and 70 percent of all American foods contain at least one genetically-altered ingredient. You can understand why I’m expecting a long list from Consumer Reports.
In 1995, there were no genetically-modified crops commercially planted in the U.S. Four years later, one half to two-thirds of all the food in the supermarket contains some genetically-altered ingredient. Don’t bother looking at the labels to see which products contain the genetically-modified stuff; there are no labels. The Food and Drug Administration has ruled that labels are not necessary, since genetically-altered plants are “substantially equivalent” to normal plants. How the FDA made that determination is unknown, because the FDA has done very little testing on genetically-modified crops. One reason genetically-altered crops have gotten into the marketplace so quickly is lack of regulatory oversight. It tends to speed things along.
Jean Halloran is director of the Consumer Policy Institute, which is associated with Consumer Reports magazine. She thinks genetically-modified food should be labeled as such, and she doesn’t care if the foods are “substantially equivalent” or not. Ms. Halloran pointed out that frozen vegetables have to be labeled “frozen” and concentrated orange juice has to be labeled “from concentrate,” even though those products are “substantially equivalent” to their thawed, unconcentrated counterparts.
The dullest consumer can tell a frozen carrot from a fresh one, but the frozen one is labeled. The most discerning customer cannot tell a genetically-altered squash from a natural one, but there is no label.
Although genetically-modified foods have rapidly taken over American agriculture, they may be going away just as quickly. The rest of the world wants no part of our “Frankenstein foods” as they call them. A subsidiary of Honda, the Japanese automaker, is building a plant in Ohio to process natural soybeans into tofu. Since tofu is a staple of the Japanese diet, Honda figures there’s money to be made ensuring its purity.
Gerber Baby Foods has promised to exclude genetically-altered ingredients from its little jars. This is a telling development, since Gerber is owned by Novartis, a conglomerate that also sells genetically-modified seeds. It’s a sad day when you can’t get another branch of your own company to buy your product.
Deutsche Bank is advising its customers to dump stock in genetic-engineering companies and American farmers are worried that there will be no takers for their genetically-altered beans and corn on the world market.
It seems that the advent of global trade has caused a commodities glut and prices have gone through the floor. The only crops anyone wants to buy are ones that can be proven to be from old-fashioned, natural seeds.
And now that Consumer Reports is out – we’ll know what to buy, too.
Mutants in the Marketplace
The September issue of Consumer Reports will be hitting the newsstands any day now and you may want to pick up a copy. It’s worth checking out. It includes a list of foods that contain genetically-modified ingredients. I haven’t seen it yet, but I think this list will run to many pages of fine print. It may be difficult to read. On one hand, Americans are blessed with copious bounty on our supermarket shelves; we seem to have more food choice than any other nation on earth. On the other hand, many of those choices leave us with little choice. Between 60 and 70 percent of all American foods contain at least one genetically-altered ingredient. You can understand why I’m expecting a long list from Consumer Reports.
In 1995, there were no genetically-modified crops commercially planted in the U.S. Four years later, one half to two-thirds of all the food in the supermarket contains some genetically-altered ingredient. Don’t bother looking at the labels to see which products contain the genetically-modified stuff; there are no labels. The Food and Drug Administration has ruled that labels are not necessary, since genetically-altered plants are “substantially equivalent” to normal plants. How the FDA made that determination is unknown, because the FDA has done very little testing on genetically-modified crops. One reason genetically-altered crops have gotten into the marketplace so quickly is lack of regulatory oversight. It tends to speed things along.
Jean Halloran is director of the Consumer Policy Institute, which is associated with Consumer Reports magazine. She thinks genetically-modified food should be labeled as such, and she doesn’t care if the foods are “substantially equivalent” or not. Ms. Halloran pointed out that frozen vegetables have to be labeled “frozen” and concentrated orange juice has to be labeled “from concentrate,” even though those products are “substantially equivalent” to their thawed, unconcentrated counterparts.
The dullest consumer can tell a frozen carrot from a fresh one, but the frozen one is labeled. The most discerning customer cannot tell a genetically-altered squash from a natural one, but there is no label.
Although genetically-modified foods have rapidly taken over American agriculture, they may be going away just as quickly. The rest of the world wants no part of our “Frankenstein foods” as they call them. A subsidiary of Honda, the Japanese automaker, is building a plant in Ohio to process natural soybeans into tofu. Since tofu is a staple of the Japanese diet, Honda figures there’s money to be made ensuring its purity.
Gerber Baby Foods has promised to exclude genetically-altered ingredients from its little jars. This is a telling development, since Gerber is owned by Novartis, a conglomerate that also sells genetically-modified seeds. It’s a sad day when you can’t get another branch of your own company to buy your product.
Deutsche Bank is advising its customers to dump stock in genetic-engineering companies and American farmers are worried that there will be no takers for their genetically-altered beans and corn on the world market.
It seems that the advent of global trade has caused a commodities glut and prices have gone through the floor. The only crops anyone wants to buy are ones that can be proven to be from old-fashioned, natural seeds.
And now that Consumer Reports is out – we’ll know what to buy, too.