Battle Brewing Over Labelling of Genetically Modified Food
Summary
This news article is about labelling genetically modified crops so the buyers are aware of what they are eating. Almost all processed foods in the United States — cereals, snack foods, salad dressings — have contained ingredients from plants whose DNA was manipulated in a laboratory. Labeling bills have been proposed in more than a dozen states over the last year, and an appeal to the Food and Drug Administration nationally drew more than a million signatures. It pits consumer groups and the organic food industry, both of which support mandatory labeling, against more conventional farmers, agricultural biotechnology companies like Monsanto and many of the nation’s best-known food brands like Kellogg’s and Kraft. Supporters of labeling argue that consumers have a right to know when food has been modified with genes from another species, which they say is fundamentally different from the selective breeding process used in nearly all crops. Almost all the corn and soybeans grown in the United States now contain DNA derived from bacteria. The foreign gene makes the soybeans resistant to an herbicide used in weed control, and causes the corn to produce its own insecticide. The F.D.A. has said that labeling is generally not necessary because the genetic modification does not materially change the food. Farmers, food and biotech companies and scientists say that labels might lead consumers to reject genetically modified food — and the technology that created it — without understanding its environmental and economic benefits. Until now, Americans have made little fuss about genetically modified crops on the market compared with Europeans, who require that such foods be labeled. Demonstrators in Britain are threatening to destroy some genetically modified wheat being grown in a research trial near London. When asked if they wanted genetically engineered foods to be labeled, about 9 in 10 Americans said that they did, according to a 2010 Thomson Reuters-NPR poll. Rather than label food with what consumers might regard as a skull and crossbones, the companies say food producers may ultimately switch to ingredients that are not genetically modified, as they did in Europe.
Response
I believe that actions like this will put an end to producing genetically modifying crops and using them to make crops, snacks and cereals. Personally, It just makes me nervous when you take genetic matter from something else that wouldn’t have been done in nature and put it into the food that we eat. The main reason I deny genetically modified crops is because we can live without them, and we have been doing so when we didn't have the technologies to make GMO's. Cross-pollination is another issue against genetically engineered crops. If large companies like Kellog's and Kraft labelled their products with GMO labels then not a lot of people will buy the product because they would obviously want natural food that is made using natural ingredients.
Source - MLA Format
Amy Harmon and Andrew Pollack, "Home - San Jose Mercury News - Battle brewing over labeling of genetically modified food - San Jose Mercury News" < http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_20705210/battle-brewing-over-labeling-genetically-modified-food>