Last month the U.S. Department of Agriculture established the first ever guidelines for labeling GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). At first glance, this seems like a win for consumers who want to know where their food comes from and how it’s made. But the new GMO labels have fallen short, failing to provide clarity for consumers and offering substantial loopholes for the farming industry.
Even mega-corporation Nestlé agrees, stating:
The standards fall short of consumer expectations and the practices of leading food companies, particularly when it comes to how we are already disclosing highly-refined ingredients and the threshold for disclosure.”
What is a Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)?
Essentially, genetically modified organisms are living organisms, like fruits and vegetables, that have been artificially manipulated through genetic engineering. The technology was developed primarily to make crops resistant to toxic herbicides and pesticides but is now used to create crops that are bigger, brighter, and brown-resistant. The food you buy at the grocery store is nothing like food that’s grown naturally.
Due to a severe lack of safety studies, there is no evidence proving that GMOs are safe for consumers. The biggest risk is the presence of harmful pesticides and herbicides, which have been shown to cause cancer and other harmful side effects. Although more than 60 countries require GMOs to be labeled (including the entire European Union), the United States has had no such requirements.
Until now…
Public Outcry
At TTAC, we continue to stress the importance of nutrition, including organic produce that’s free of toxic chemicals. And we aren’t alone. According to a poll by ABC News, the vast majority of Americans want GMOs to be labeled. And why not? People deserve to know exactly what they’re putting into their bodies. But until now, the United States has not required the food industry to disclose the genetic alteration of their products.
You may have seen labels on your food that say “Non-GMO.” This is largely due to movements by the NON-GMO project and others who have helped Americans identify food that has not been genetically engineered. We believe that consumers deserve to know exactly where their food comes from and how it was made. A federal mandate requiring new GMO labels is exactly what we wanted.
The New GMO Labels
Unfortunately, federal regulators have failed us yet again. When tasked with outlining the requirements for the new GMO labels, the USDA failed to create acceptable guidelines for the industry. This failure is due, in part, to massive influence by the agricultural industry.
The current Secretary of Agriculture is a man named Sonny Perdue. A former Georgia governor and veterinarian, Perdue was approved as secretary in early 2017… and has deep ties with the agricultural industry. A former fertilizer salesman, he’s received well over $300,000 in campaign donations from the agricultural industry. Perdue has since supported severely under-qualified candidates for influential positions within the government’s agricultural oversight department.
Sonny Perdue was very clear about the intent of the new GMO labels, saying
This ensures clear information and labeling consistency for consumers about the ingredients in their food.”
And that sounds great. Who doesn’t want clear labeling on the food they bring home?
But the new guidelines fail consumers. They are so convoluted that the average shopper will be hard-pressed to know what the new labels mean – if they can even read them.
Meanwhile, there are a substantial number of loopholes that allow manufacturers to avoid labeling requirements altogether.
Let me outline a few of the glaring issues with the new GMO labels:
The Name:
The acronym “GMO” has been prevalent for years, and most Americans concerned with the origins of their food are aware of its meaning. But like many marketing efforts before, agricultural lobbyists have convinced the USDA to change terminology.
THIS IS IMPORTANT.
GMOs are now officially referred to as “Bioengineered” foods. This is a term with which the general public is completely unfamiliar, and a transparent attempt to rebrand GMOs to avoid detection. Not only does this introduce new vernacular to consumers, it allows regulatory bodies to more strictly define the products subject to the new labeling requirements. According to the FDA,
The Standard defines bioengineered foods as those that contain detectable genetic material that has been modified through lab techniques and cannot be created through conventional breeding or found in nature.”
But the new rules are a joke.
The Label:
This is what the new GMO labels will look like.
The new label for bioengineered foods (GMOs) is biased and misleading. The Department of Agriculture defined the purpose of the new labels this way:
This rule is intended to provide a mandatory uniform national standard for disclosure of information to consumers about the BE status of foods.”
Agricultural lobbyists pushed for the acronym “BE” on the labels, but even the USDA knew that this would confuse consumers. Instead, they settled on a logo that features the word “bioengineered” twice. According to the official decision,
This will improve the understanding of the symbol, as many comments explained that they did not understand what the acronym “BE” stood for. Symbols were designed to communicate the bioengineered status of a food in a way that would not disparage biotechnology or suggest BE food is more or less safe than non-BE food.”
And that’s fantastic. But the new symbol is still incredibly deceptive. Featuring farmland, a healthy plant, and a sun, the new symbol for GMOs bioengineered ingredients is inherently biased. This symbol is deceivingly natural, implying that the product is natural and healthy. These products are exactly the opposite!
According to Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, a democratic representative from Maine:
These labels should give people the facts of whether ingredients in their food have been genetically altered, plain and simple.”
But new terminology and a deceptive symbol indicate that they are not.
The Delivery:
One would think that the new symbol is the bare minimum for informing consumers of the origins of their food, but the convolution goes deeper.
In lieu of the symbol, companies are permitted to provide a Quick Response (QR) code. This is essentially a fancy barcode that you can scan on your smartphone that generates a website. And while this seems like a convenient way for shoppers to gather information, it inherently discriminates against consumers who don’t have smartphones, can’t afford the data use, or don’t have a reliable internet connection.
What’s more, it creates an extra step for anyone who wants to know where their food comes from. There is a requirement that products utilizing the QR code provide a phone number for consumers to call for information, but this option still presents significant obstacles to folks who simply want to know where their food comes from and how it was made. Previous versions of the symbol incorporated a smiley face, so the current image is, surprisingly, the best choice given the options.
The Definition:
Perhaps the most disturbing part of the new GMO labels is the definition of GMOs put forth by the USDA. The majority of GMOs aren’t whole foods. They are processed foods derived from GMOs like soy, canola, and corn. These are highly refined products, and DNA tests may not demonstrate their GMO content. Although many products are derived from these biologically engineered ingredients, they are not required to meet labeling requirements.
There’s also an exception for “inadvertent or technically unavoidable” GMO content. Up to 5% of the product can be genetically modified without requiring a label. Consumers deserve to know if their food has been “bioengineered,” and yet there is a loophole allowing manufacturers to market GMO products without disclosure. The GMO contamination threshold in the European Union is 0.9%, a mark that would have been in line with international standards.
Even worse, the definition of bioengineered foods excludes many of the cutting-edge practices that are just recently emerging. For example, CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is an emerging process that involves altering the DNA of organisms. RNAi (Ribonucleic Acid Interface) is another technology that alters the genetic makeup of an organism to achieve a desired result. None of the new technologies used to create GMOs are included in the definition provided by the Department of Agriculture. These cutting-edge methods, likely the future of GMOs bioengineered foods, are exempt from the new rule.
By definition.
Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, believes that the new rules are deceptive and misleading:
The USDA has betrayed the public trust by denying Americans the right to know how their food is produced.”
The Result:
The new rule creates the illusion of transparency without providing thorough or accurate information to the American public. Once again, our regulatory agencies are satisfied with providing a facade of accountability. They are not concerned whatsoever with the truth. Corporate agriculture, and the massive industry that they supply, are unwilling to disclose their practices to their consumers.
Why?
Because there’s too much money to be made. Why would major agricultural businesses disclose information that hurts their bottom line? It’s important to know what we’re consuming. It’s important to know exactly what we’re putting into our bodies, but these new labels completely fail their mission.
Scott Faber, senior vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, may have said it best:
At a time when consumers are asking more and more questions about the use of genetic engineering, today’s rule will further undermine the technology by sowing greater confusion among Americans who simply want the right to know if their food is genetically modified.”
Charlene,
This is an excellent article, but way too complicated for MOST people to understand, or bother with. I read it because I am obsessed with the subject, MOST people need the info in a short concise statement. This label is VERY misleading but what’s more important is the fact that labeling something non-GMO does not address the fact that most of the food labeled as such is not grown organically!
Toxic food or toxic ingredients should be labeled GMO straight up!
Shaunie Briggs
Why don’t we start a petition. It is great for us to receive this news but even better to do something about it. You have the following to do this. Let’s lobby the government
I agree! I would definitely sign a petition and share via social media for even more to get onboard!
I’m down!
I agree.
I agree. We need to take a stand now.
Thank you for your work. What can we do to fight this deception and greed?
Thank you for this very well-written, clear, and important article. I agree with Dee that lobbying the government — or approaching one of the more progressive members of congress to include such actions in their work — would be a great step to take. But taking on the logistics of such an enterprise would probably be daunting, and your expertise I see as educating and inspiring rather than as activism. Is there an activist in the audience interested in taking this on? You would be doing a significant service for us all!
I am a U S citizen and insist on the right to eat clean, nutritious foods when purchasing them in a food market! Please do what is needed to clearly and honestly label foods sold to the general public.
Yes absolutely. Lets do something about it. We cannot just sit still and be lied to by the government.
How about and example of what it original stated and what it now states and what we would like it to state. Instead you have page after page of on going rehashed info. Not douting what our saying just spend more energy on the facts verse the out rage.
I agree! That would be great and I’d love to sign.
Ty & Charlene:
Let’s do it. Start with us and we’ll tell ALL our friends.
Forget it. It won’t work. We were signing petitions so that Obama would veto the Dark ACT. The Dark Act pushed through by Congress who were ALL paid off should have been vetoed by Obama but OBAMA BETRAYED US and sided with Monsanto and was paid off too. Give money to the lobbyist organizations that are against GMOs. I am telling you petitions will not work at this time. We were all working very hard at the right time and it did not work……Now it is too late…
Just buy certified ORGANIC foods. So far the FDA hasn’t screwed up that.
Where’s the Petition? I’ll sign it!!
A petition in political lingo is called, a referendum. Gather signatures that include a statement to simplfy the process of listing cancer causing in our foods. No fancy steps or apps are needed; just outright truth. Mona ( a conqueror of cancer 2x)
We should let the manufacturers that use unnatural ingredients know that we do not want and will not consume food that is toxic to the natural body. Buy only organic and/or avoid processed foods as much as possible. Hurt them in their profits.
Hi Kay,
Thanks for you comment. Here are some great next steps:
#1: Write or call your representatives. From the city council to the U.S. Senate, these people work for us. And if we make our voices heard, it becomes far more likely that our representatives will take action on our behalf.
#2: Continue to educate yourself. Knowledge is half the battle, and as we’ve seen with the new GMO rules, even the terminology is being used to confuse us. Knowing what bioengineered food is and why some GMO products won’t be labeled is a good step.
#3: Get the Non-GMO Project App. The free Non-GMO Project shopping guide app allows you to scan barcodes and search an up-to-date list of products that have been verified through their Verification Program.
The best rule of thumb for avoiding these products is to shop locally and organic!
So—-if we buy only certified organic foods, are we protected from GMO’s?
Wow! …and yet again we are hood winked! This is scary stuff! Maybe a petition is a good idea.
The new guidelines for GMO or Bioengineered food is criminal and nothing but a result of the Industrial Farming Complex having thier way in Washington.
There must be one politician left that still has a moral compass and will take a stand, if you read this please step up and protect the people, your primary duty!!!
If we do not get this right now it will be practically impossible after the long drawn out fact!!
Yes. I believe we have to begin to demend that we want clean food ..
I try and tell every one I know about what is happening with our food supply .
It’s ridiculous. That we have to shop read every label .
Just to try and eat clean ..
Every home every family deserves clean food .
We need to some how let our voices be heard .
I tell
People only us can make change
If people would stop buying They would have to STOP
Most of the food in America is dirty food ..
We. Need a movement .
I agree that a petition is good idea. I would be happy to do whatever I can to expose and change these deceptive new rules for labeling. The good part is that there is an awareness of what is going on and people are taking note, otherwise the USDA would not be making changes in attempts to continue deception.
Thank you Ty and Charlene for all you do!
Dear Charlene and Ty,
Thank you for your compassion, you made a difference in my journey.
This news is so distressing! Prayers to all to come up with a solution we can live with.
I’m volunteering my services how ever we can spread this news to Oklahoma. .its real backwards here and dark if you don’t believe in chemotherapy land.
I’m determined to make a difference for my grandchildren. I’m supposed to be dead so that’s how they treat me. Out of sight out of mind. I can’t even give away my extra copy of TTAC and I’ve bought 2 of your series.
I applaud you, and still wait on my purpose to have survived this nightmare Of Stage II estrogen related breast cancer that they were so sure I would not last 1 year. “2 at the most” was 12.16.18.
So the torture of them implying 1st brain cancer the 1st few months(11.3.16 stroke), then bone cancer the next few months (Sept 2017 spinal stenosis and deteriorated disks), then lung cancer after the heart attack 5.29.18. (Assaulted by my landlord over weed killer) Those Tests showed new spots on the lung. 3rd PET scan shows no manifestations. CTC shows zero. I’m maintaining, but the root canals are my concern now. Had 4 in 2015 by a fly-by-night dentist. I’m praying for a miracle to get those removed.
I know. I’m complicated and “I dont know what to say” is a term I hear alot. If anything..So God bless you all anyway!
So what do we look for?
please tell us what specific steps/who to contact to fight this and support your efforts. as a consumer, dont want to have to use an emf loaded device to monitor products. how do we get something moving in the right direction? thank you for all you do.
Hi Marje,
#1: Write or call your representatives. From the city council to the U.S. Senate, these people work for us. And if we make our voices heard, it becomes far more likely that our representatives will take action on our behalf.
#2: Continue to educate yourself. Knowledge is half the battle, and as we’ve seen with the new GMO rules, even the terminology is being used to confuse us. Knowing what bioengineered food is and why some GMO products won’t be labeled is a good step.
#3: Get the Non-GMO Project App. The free Non-GMO Project shopping guide app allows you to scan barcodes and search an up-to-date list of products that have been verified through their Verification Program.
The best rule of thumb for avoiding these products is to shop locally and organic!
Simply post a “contains GMO” label on all food both raw and processed that contains any amount of GMO.
The answer is to eat unprocessed food.
Has a study ever been done comparing three categories of food for health and nutritional value – organically grown foods, non-organic but not modified foodsand GMO
modified foods?
Agreed! I signed 6+ petitions each day
It would have been good to have linked to some action points.
Hi Toni,
Here are some action points for you:
#1: Write or call your representatives. From the city council to the U.S. Senate, these people work for us. And if we make our voices heard, it becomes far more likely that our representatives will take action on our behalf.
#2: Continue to educate yourself. Knowledge is half the battle, and as we’ve seen with the new GMO rules, even the terminology is being used to confuse us. Knowing what bioengineered food is and why some GMO products won’t be labeled is a good step.
#3: Get the Non-GMO Project App. The free Non-GMO Project shopping guide app allows you to scan bar codes and search an up-to-date list of products that have been verified through their Verification Program.
The best rule of thumb for avoiding these products is to shop locally and organic!
Ok I will check on the products that I usually buy. Many thanks for heads up on these information. Plus about the app, I never knew it would scan to tell if they are verified.
It’s past time that more and more people should grow their own fruits and vegetables as we did when I was growing up. This one sure way to make sure we are consuming REAL foods and not poisons.
It is imperittive that this issue is addressed and steps taken to improve the knowledge of how our food is grown. Where is the medical field imput on this? Time to stand up and make a stand. Who can we trust when we receive information about our food? Scary?!
THank you for the info. I will sign a petition if one is created. Keep up the good fight!
You ALL are the God Given people to educate and empower everyone. I pass this information on to those to educate them. Surprisingly, they look at me as if I’m stupid. So, at best – I say Live and Learn or Die Dumb” (Bertha Chaney – my Cherokee Indian Grandmother) LOL.
Why is our Country feeding us potential poison that has been banned in other countries?
What is wrong with our Public Employees?
Thank you for this so important information
Yeah, I agree. Start a petition. I’ll sign. Like pointed out above, you have a following. You could promote it and you have a network of people you know and work with that could also join in and help promote it. You could bring all kinds of holistic healers in and do it as a group thing even.
Why don’t someone contact the President. Obviously there was a payoff. This is the very thing he is totally against. He needs to be aware of this.
What makes you think this president is against this? Based on his actions so far, he’s completely in favor of no accountability. I think the payoff you’re referring to is Monsanto and the GMO label that’s no longer going to be used. They’ll use Bioengineered instead – completely uninformative.
Watch “The Plan to save the World”
I agree Adrienne! Trump is about the last president that would do anything about it! This is the guy who rolled back regulations that protect us from pollution because he thinks coal needs to be used more! Doesn’t believe in climate change! He could care less about our environment, dirty food, health care or anything else that is good for people! He’s one of them that will do ANYTHING to make a buck!
This needs to be brought to the attention of someone in congress that would ACTUALLY do something about it!
Your comments are not helpful on a website about Truth. These unsubstantiated statements about what our President cares about conforms more to “fake news” than useful truth. Let’s stick to known facts.
Trump is the only President that has the moxy to do something about this farce. Obama promised and promised but like everything he promised nothing ever became of it. Trump is pretty busy right now with all THe Russian Rhetoric that spews none stop from all outlets. Hillary & Obama can sell 20 billion dollars of Uranium to the Russians and not a mention one can imagine if Trump did something like this. Trump is on record that Vaccinations are out of control so I gotta believe in his 2nd term he will address the poisoning of America with GMO slop
I agree with you Tina that our president is against all of the corruption that has plagued our government for decades! He has so much on his plate right now, it may take years for this to get resolved. We, the people must take action by calling our representatives and informing them. We all need to take responsibility and help fight against all of the corruption!!!
Thank you Charlene and Ty you are the best!
Maybe we need to start growing our own.
I believe the new label is much more descriptive to the consumer.
I have , surprisingly found several people that have no idea what “GMO” stands for.
Thanks for sharing this alarming information!
I think we should share it with everyone we know so people can avoid the fake food, and all that destroys our health.
Get more people to visit TTAC website.
Another downside is that many of us actually choose to not buy i-phones or other tablets because of the cancer-promoting electro- magnetic radiation they all emit. One safe choice is to only buy certified organic fruits, vegetables and grains, nuts, seeds etc, and avoid boxed or processed foods altogether. That’ll hit big ag’s bottom line big time, and help keep your family healthy.
To learn and understand the truth about anything that exist in this world, be it about the health of your body or about food, plants and nature or even about human behaviour and relationships or skills and crafts and good action is a most beautiful process that will bring a peaceful balance to your life and together with that, it will bring real joy and happiness. That’s what I’ve learned the last few years since I start taking care of my body by eating healthy food. So anything else that will disguise that truth will bring me out of my balance and will harm me and so I consider this now as evil. So yes, I’m convinced that we have to protect ourselves against this evil to be healthy and be able to discover the beautiful balance in ourselves and in this world. That’s why I love and respect Ty’s and Charlene’s mission, which is not an easy thing to do as it requires a very high level of discrimination. And as I know that nobody is perfect and can make mistakes, I know that all the preparation, studies and research they are doing to find out the Truth about cancer, their information is helping me a lot and makes my work much more easier! So I’m very grateful what they are offering us… and hopefully this is only a beginning of a good and healthy collective understanding of ‘the truth’…. as only standing up against egotistic money profits can change this. And as we all know very well, your president knows very well what that means. So I don’t think he is a good example to change the world into a healthy and balanced place to live in. America and the rest of the world deserves better than that as we all will have to Work and find out the Truth to make our Holy Planet Healthy again!
Great article Ty and Charlene! Thanks for sharing important info on this controversial subject, here in Portugal GMOs have been labelled for some years, yet successive governments have allowed these crops since, at least, 10 years. Most of the food I buy is organic, nevertheless it’s vital to know what’s happening in the US as we Portuguese suffer a lot of influence from America, either in good or bad senses..God bless you!
I’M ALL IN!!!!! Let’s get this going!!!
Thanks a lot. For your work ‼️
Thank you for sharing this information!
In one way, the new label is actually a gift in disguise. It simplifies things for the consumer. No research needed, no QR code needs to be scanned to find out if GMOs are in the ingredients. All one has to do is ban all products that have the “bioengineered” label. Simple.
We are already conditioned to look for the “USDA Organic” label on the products we buy. Now we have a simple “BIOENGINEERED BIOENGINEERED” label telling us what NOT to buy. I think that is a good thing, a step in the right direction.
The new label isn’t shaped like a stop sign or a red flag, but as long as people are made aware of this (that it means GMO) and become conditioned to avoid products with the new label, then Corporate agriculture has actually done us a big favor while shooting themselves in the foot.
Thank you for making us aware of this. As soon as everyone learns that the new label means “GMO” the sooner the new label becomes a positive thing.
As for what exactly the new label requires on the part of the manufacturer… That’s a whole different 🤬 ball game 😡
Yes a petition would be the fastest way for the mass to be heard.
Great health information for the new generation.
Connie
It is not mentioned here that Obama signed the Dark Act before he left office and this is a betrayal of our rights. This is not going to change locally. The entire point of the Dark Act was to take away local government rights. This is not going to change so easily. We were all signing petitions to make that Obama veto the Dark Act but instead he betrayed our rights, the leftist that he is. Yet no other country uses pesticides, GMOs like we do and we are killing our younger generations. The millenials don’t eat right and their brains are like mush needing “safe spaces” . Congress every member, look it up, took money from lobbyists to push this Dark Act. This will not be easy to undo. In this case petitions probably won’t do any good at all. Donate to organizations that lobby against this law. OBAMA BETRAYED US AND TOOK AWAY OUR RIGHT TO KNOW.
Notice the beautiful “green” color of the new BIOENGINEERED label. A subtle way to make people think “Oh, it’s green” which is a positive trendy word these days! Not coincidental!
It looks like a green version of Obama’s campaign logo. This is another example of a perennial symbol signifying world communism and depicting “the dawn of a new day” (see Jordan Maxwell’s expose of this symbol)
Currently, you need signatures of at least 1000 before someone is forced to respond from the white house. Can you start a petition since you have all the contacts? Please start a petition-we will sign it! i think it is 1000, if not you can find out how many are needed for someone to look into this and enforce change.
An excellent,clearly written and easily understood article about an important issue!
Thanks for this valuable information. Shopping local is great advice. Don’t think this will persuade me to buy a smart phone though!
We need a Constitutional Amendment that states:
No living organism shall be patented if it requires or required an un-patented natural living organism to create or produce it. The process for modifying or altering a natural organism maybe patent-able but the modified living organism resulting from the process shall not be patent-able.
Animals, plants, humans, seeds, microorganisms and their parts such as genes and cells would not be patent-able as these life forms are creations of God and Nature.
The first step should be to ask to change the color of the outer circle – the letters “BIOENGINEERED” should be white on the red background, that will give right away the first warning to consumers.
Thanks for the information. It will surely help those who are physically-challenged.
As always you always have the right right information and it is right all the time thank you Ruth
I don’t have a smart phone, so a free app won’t do me any good to know what I am buying. Many people I talk to still don’t see what all the fuss is about, because they don’t understand the difference between genetically modifying food crops and selective breeding. I doubt that government regulators will ever get the labeling right, because those who want to keep us in the dark are too powerful. I think the best solution is to grow your own whenever possible, and buy locally grown, organic, unprocessed foods for the rest. I know organic can be expensive, but the extra money you pay for food you save in health care costs. If enough people refuse to buy this junk, there won’t be a market for it.
Better yet, grow your own food as much as possible. They will only change when it affects their wallets.