States lead debate over modified food labeling
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post
May 20, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/states-lead-debate-over-modified-food-labeling/2011/05/12/AF50QV7G_story.html
In the absence of a federal law requiring labels for genetically modified food,
14 states are debating whether to mandate labeling for modified foods sold
within their borders.
The discussions, taking place from Albany, N.Y., to Sacramento, come as federal
regulators weigh approval of the first genetically modified animal, a salmon,
for human consumption.
In four states - California, Oregon, Vermont and Alaska - lawmakers are
considering legislation that would pertain only to fish. The other states,
including New York, are grappling with measures that would require all foods
made from genetically modified ingredients to disclose that information on the
label.
"The fact that you see these measures popping up is kind of a response to the
vacuum in Washington," said Jared Huffman, a Democratic member of the California
State Assembly and sponsor of a bill to require labeling for genetically
modified salmon. His measure was debated Wednesday by a key appropriations
committee but fell three votes short of the number needed for passage. The
committee chairman, who supports the bill, called for a second vote to be held
May 25. If approved, it will head to the full assembly.
Genetically modified food is created when a plant or organism receives genetic
material from a different source - sometimes a different species - to produce a
desired trait. Creators of the genetically altered salmon took an Atlantic
salmon and inserted a growth hormone from a Chinook salmon and a gene from an
ocean pout. The result is a salmon that grows twice the normal rate. Critics
have dismissed it as "Frankenfish."
The Food and Drug Administration says it cannot require a label once it
determines the altered food is not "materially" different from its conventional
counterpart, which it has done in the case of the salmon.
But Huffman said that the genetically modified salmon, which has not yet
received FDA approval, is not the same as a wild salmon, and that consumers
deserve to know the difference.
"If you've got a product on the shelf next to wild salmon and it's genetically
engineered, raised in pens in a factory facility - probably priced a lot less -
and you don't even label it, the consumer will think it's salmon," Huffman said,
adding that the cheaper competitor would threaten California's struggling wild
salmon industry.
The controversy comes as Americans show increased interest in their food - where
it is grown, how it is produced and what it contains.
"There's been tremendous, overwhelming support from constituents on this,"
Huffman said.
Since the FDA approved the first genetically altered material for use in food in
1992, the use of genetically engineered crops has skyrocketed; 93 percent of
last year's soybean crop was genetically engineered, according to the U.S.
Agriculture Department.
By-products of those crops - soy lecithin, for example - are found in thousands
of processed foods from chocolate bars to breakfast cereal. Genetically modified
ingredients are present in about 80 percent of conventional processed food in
the United States, according to the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a trade
organization opposed to labeling measures. |
| The Genetic Engineering Blog is produced by Thomas Wittman and EcoFarm,
and supported by a generous donation from the Newman's Own Foundation. |
