Why is the food industry spending millions of dollars to keep us from knowing if there are GMOs in the foods we eat. If GMOs are safe for human consumption, then it seems like labeling is the only reasonable thing to do. Spending all of this money to keep us in the dark smells rather fishy to me!

Expert response from Community Manager

Moderator for GMOAnswers.com

Friday, 29/05/2015 16:00

Cathy Enright, former executive director of the Council for Biotechnology Information, addresses GMO labeling here. In this response, Cathy states:

“We absolutely do support the right of consumers to choose food that is healthy and nutritious. And although we do not sell food products directly to consumers, we support food companies’ decisions to voluntarily label food products for the presence or absence of GMOs, so consumers who wish to can choose food that is not made with GMO ingredients. Some companies have opted to use these voluntary labels, such as ‘USDA Organic.’

“We do support mandatory labeling of food, including GMO food, if such food presents a safety risk to a certain population — for example, those allergic to a food ingredient. We believe the harm in mandating labeling for GMO food, just because it is a GMO food, is that such a label would convey to consumers that foods made from the farmers’ crops grown with our seeds are less safe than, less nutritious than or somehow different from conventional or organic food.

“But there has never been any evidence linking a food-safety or health risk to the consumption of GMO foods. There are hundreds of independent studies that demonstrate this (check out independent studies at BioFortified), in addition to the determinations from scientific and regulatory authorities around the world that GMO foods on the market are as safe and nutritious as their non-GMO counterparts [see FDA information here]. There have been a few studies that have asserted such a risk exists, but each of these studies has been found not to be credible, essentially ‘debunked’ by the global scientific community.”

We’ve received a number of questions regarding GMO labeling. Included below are several additional answers that you may be interested in:

• Why do biotechnology companies oppose labeling requirements?
• How much would it cost to label GMOs?
• Hello, I was wondering why we aren't aloud a label, it honestly isn't fair.

If you have additional questions after reading these answers, please ask.