Kellogg’s And ConAgra Join General Mills And Mars To Label GMOs
March has been a month of major victory for those concerned about eating food contaminated with the biotech industry’s GMOs.
Four major food companies, Kellogg’s, ConAgra Foods, General Mills and Mars, Inc., announced they will label food products that contain genetically modified organisms. These companies are following in the footsteps of Campbell’s Soup, who announced its intent to label GMOs back in January.
Just last week, a GMO labeling bill known as the DARK Act (Deny Americans the Right to Know Act) was shot down inside the Senate. That piece of legislation would have prohibited states from requiring GMO labeling.
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These big moves in labeling all have been carried on back of the state of Vermont, which has in place a plan to implement a mandatory GMO labeling law on July 1. Executives say that creating labels for only one state isn’t feasible, so all packaging has to be overhauled nationwide.
“The GMO food giants aren’t used to losing, but they were just knocked on their collective keister by the state of Vermont,” said Paul Burns, the Executive Director of Vermont’s largest consumer and environmental organization. “Consumers across the country will no doubt take notice.”
Burns is absolutely correct, food giants and the biotech industry have spent enormous amounts of money to fight laws which would require GMO labeling.
Just in the last four years, major food and chemical companies have spent over $140 million trying to keep consumers in the dark on GMOs. Some big donors to the anti-GMO labeling cause are Pepsi Co., Monsanto, Dow Chemical, the Biotechnology Industry Organization and Coca-Cola.
Shockingly, before the GMO labeling decision by the big five companies mentioned above, those food producers had pumped almost $12,000,000 into lobbying expenses against what they are now taking part in.
That is a fairly small blow to the total lobbying effort against GMO labeling, but still a victory for those who don’t want to be left in the dark.
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Consumers can hope that the DARK Act’s defeat last week could pave the way for Congress to pass a nationwide mandatory GMO labeling law.
What company will be next to hop on board the GMO labeling train?
Joseph Jankowski is a contributor for Planet Free Will.com. His works have been published by recognizable alternative news sites like GlobalResearch.ca, ActivistPost.com and Intellihub.com.
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