US farmers, food interests unite against GMO labeling

Seed Daily via AFP: US farmers joined with the food industry Thursday to launch a united front against labeling genetically modified products, amid mounting consumer pressure and an ongoing trade dispute with China.

More than half of US states introduced bills aimed at requiring GMO labeling last year, in a country where 80 percent of the food contains ingredients that were made with genetically modified organisms. While only two states have passed such measures, and none have yet implemented any labeling requirements, farmers are clearly concerned about the prospect.

"If each state had a different label requirement, our farmers just couldn't adapt to that and really economically grow safe, affordable food," said Ray Gaesser, president of the American Soybean Association which represents 600,000 US farmers.

Gaesser estimated that any new state-by-state labeling laws would hike prices 15 to 30 percent. Stressing the lack of scientific evidence that GMOs cause harm, Gaesser joined with corn farmers, bakers, restaurants, fisheries, animal feed and grocery store groups in forming the 30-member Coalition for Safe Affordable Food....

Corn on the cob, shot by Thamizhpparithi Maari, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license