Friday, May 9, 2014

Vermont forces GMO labels

Vermont has become the first jurisdiction in the Americas to force labelling for genetically-modified foods.

The governor signed the bill into law this week, but it’s not due to take effect until 2016, and it probably won’t survive until then.

Lawsuits are so certain to arise that the governor has set up a website to gather money from the public to right legal challenges.

And Republicans who control the House of Representatives in Washington are proposing legislation to bar states from requiring GMO labelling.

In signing the legislation, Governor Peter Shumlin, announcing the website campaign, "we are asking people all across America, and all across the great state of Vermont, to go to (the website) and make a donation, so that we can win the Vermont Food Fight Fund fight not only for Vermont, but for America."

The law will require labels at retail for foods containing any GMO ingredients and signs at displays for unpackaged GMO foods.
I wonder whether they realize that this will require a GMO label on the overwhelming majority of processed foods. And did they check with Post cereals to learn that it has had no sales increase since it announced that regular Cheerios would be GMO free?