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SupplySide West Podcast 6: Controversies With the New GMO Labelling Law

Manufacturers may now wait for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) to establish the new national standards for GMO labeling.

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Campbell’s has been a vocal supporter of national GMO labeling.

In response to the new law, the President and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association in the US, Pamela G. Bailey, said that this legislation will open a new era for transparency in ingredient information for consumers.

Israelsen will be offering more insight on GMO labeling and consumer expectations at the panel discussion GMOs: Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow’s Opportunities on Thursday, Oct. 6, at 2 p.m.at SupplySide West 2016.

Another uncertainty is whether USDA will require labeling if the ingredients do not have any traces of genetic modification but came from the planting of genetically modified seed, as would be the case with beet sugar. Under the law, it’s possible that genetically engineered salmon will not be labeled as such in Alaska.

“Well let me ask you, who do you think is really going to voluntarily place a label on something that says, ‘This is not the real thing”.

Vermont Business Magazine Following President Obama’s signing of S764, which establishes a “National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard”, the Vermont Attorney General will no longer be enforcing Act 120, Vermont’s first-in-the-nation law requiring the labeling of food produced with genetic engineering (GE or GMO-genetically modified). This is not your wild Alaska salmon.

And just because food is labeled, farmers want people to know that doesn’t mean anything’s wrong with it.

But instead Obama perpetuated the conflict-of-interest between powerful industries and government regulators, appointing a former Monsanto executive as the head of the Food and Drug Administration. If not, would they be labeled as GMOs?

Katherine Paul, an associate director of the Organic Consumers Association – one of the country’s leading food safety organisations – told Al Jazeera that the new law violates consumer rights as all citizens have the right to know and choose what they are purchasing.

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“This law will provide stability in the marketplace for both producers and consumers, while avoiding a messy patchwork of state laws”, said ASA president Richard Wilkins in a media statement.

Vermont Attorney General Sorrell will not enforce GMO food labeling law