I recently wrote another article for the EcoEtsy blog. I hope you will check it out and share with your friends in California where there is an initiative on the ballot to label GMOs. This is my top 10 list, but please check out the full article which also includes comments from one of my EcoEtsy Team mates, Nancy of SoulRole and the full length film Genetic Roulette, which available to watch free through November 6th.
Top 10 reasons to label and avoid GMOs
1) We have a right to know what is in our foods, so we have the freedom to choose what to eat and what kind of agriculture practices we support. Without labeling we don’t know what is in our food, though it is estimated that
80% of processed foods contain GMO.
2) The US falls short in best accepted policies for GMO labeling. 50 countries now label genetically engineered foods including Australia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, the European Union and China.
7) GMOs do not improve
crop yields. This is particularly important in the context of climate change and drought. Organic crops have shown to consistently produce better under
drought conditions.
9)
GMOs promote
seed slavery.
A seed is not an invention. That is why patents on seeds are illegitimate. Even in a genetically engineered crop, the original seed come from farmers. Patents on seed are based on biopiracy… Patents on seed allow corporations to prevent farmers from saving and
exchanging seed. Thus patent violates farmers’ right to save, use, reuse, breed and
exchange seed as their
commons.
10) Labeling will offer more options for the consumer at no extra cost, because they will have the opportunity to vote with their dollars. Opponents of Prop 37 suggest that labeling GMOs will result in increased food prices. However there is no evidence that
food prices have increased in the many countries that have implemented GMO labeling.
