Food Labeling

On Food Labeling....

I read this article earlier today, which got me thinking on the GMO labeling movement.

The GMO label was supposedly just supposed to be an additional line on the nutritional information that says, "This product contains Genetically Modified Organisms" which if the initial grower includes on their product (they should know), would require no significant change other than updating your labels with the same information when you find out that the labels on things you're buying have it. So it'd be relatively cheap. (The companies in California raised a huge stink, and claimed that "it'd cost consumers an extra $400 a year in groceries." What they didn't tell consumers was that $400 was assuming noone changed their purchasing habits at all, and was due to companies switching away from GMOs because they wouldn't want to get stuck with that label, and raising their prices as a result.)

However, to be fair, labels can be expensive if they require significant research. For example, listing the percentage of dietary intake of sugar for a pre-cooked apple pie. Sure, some is taken up by the sugar you add, that number can be found with a simple 3x3 spreadsheet, but then you have to include the sugar from the apple, and its exact amounts are more obscure (a granny smith might have a different amount than a red delicious, and if you've got a cross-breed or a good/bad year, oh my!), and requires more research.

Now, the linked article doesn't say HOW the supplements were asked to be labeled. If it was simply, "This is an alternative medicine supplement, and has not been tested by the FDA", that's completely fine, I'm cool with that. If it's a label that requires significant testing by the FDA to fill out its contents (like a full nutrition label), then like normal nutrition labels, requirements should be scaled to the size of company.

Now, that said, I'm a proponent of labeling requiring the ingrediant list to mention source of ingrediants, I'm also the type who ignores the font of a container and heads straight for the ingredient list. And organic pre-made pizza will include, "Organic cheese, organic wheat, organic tomatoes..." as part of its label. Similarly, *I* think foods with gmo foods should be labeled as such, "Patent 3255623 GMO Wheat, Patent 5290983 GMO Tomatos, ..." so that way I can look up the patent office online and see what they actually DID to the food.

So, say something like golden rice or purple tomatoes that are altered to have more nutrients? I'm cool with that, load me up, GMO my food all day! But if that corn has been engineered to be able to survive enough poison to kill a blue whale... I don't think I'm going to choose to trust the pesticides that have been sprayed on it. Call me paranoid, but I'd like that tomato to die from poison overdose before I would.