Saturday, May 5, 2012
Lawmakers urge labels
Lawmakers urge labels for genetically modified food
By Ken Dixon
Greenwich Time
May 05, 2012
HARTFORD — A bill linking Connecticut to a pending referendum in California that would require the labeling of genetically engineered foods is in a race with the legislative adjournment date later this week.
Lawmakers pushing for the so-called genetically modified organisms (GMO) legislation say it’s important to allow people to decide for themselves whether they want to purchase the controversial products.
But House leaders are concerned over the possible lengthy debate on the constitutionality of requiring the labeling, and making a Connecticut law dependent on action in another state.
“We’re trying to get it on the `go’ list,” said Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, co-chairman of the legislative Environment Committee, who this year has made the labeling issue one of the major goals of his final year in the General Assembly.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
California initiative
California groups push for vote on GMO food labels
By Carey Gillam
Reuters
May 02, 2012
A California initiative to require labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients appeared headed for the ballot in November after organizers said on Wed nesday they had gathered nearly 1 million signatures in favor of the measure.
The hotly contested proposal is similar to measures being pushed in other U.S. states and at the federal level as GMO opponents demand more transparency in food products.
The California measure would require labeling of foods made with biotech corn, soybeans, canola, or other biotech crops to specify that they were “produced with genetic engineering.”
Friday, April 20, 2012
GMO labeling bill OKd
House Panel OKs GMO labeling bill, but with a caveat
Terri Hallenbeck
Burlington Free Press
April 20, 2012
MONTPELIER — By a 9-1 vote Friday afternoon, the House Agriculture Committee approved a bill that would require genetically engineered foods to be labeled.
Legislators said the move comes in response to an increasing call for information about the contents of food and wariness about the science of genetic engineering.
For several reasons, however, the controversial labels are far from a reality in Vermont.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
GMO labels (Turkey)
GMO labels for products coming
Hürriyet Daily News (Istanbul)
April 18, 2012
Turkey’s Minister of Agriculture Mehdi Eker gave the green light to label products from animals that have been fed genetically modified feed such as corn and soy. This is one of the conditions that Green Peace Turkey has recently been pushing for.
Meat, milk, eggs, cheese and other products derived from animals, which have been fed genetically modified organism (GMO), will now be labeled to provide consumers with a choice when purchasing products.
Consumers have a choice
“Until today there were no labels on products of animals fed with GMOs and this took the choice away from consumers. With this announcement our minister not only filled a legal void, but also showed that we can be a leader in the region and the European Union,” said Tarık Nejat Dinç, head of the Greek Mediterranean Agricultural Campaign to news portal NTVMSNBC. Dinç hoped that going forward, the legal changes would continue in as quick and determined a fashion.
Farm group takes action
Farm group seeks US halt on ‘dangerous’ crop chemicals
Carey Gillam
Reuters
April 18, 2012
A coalition of more than 2,000 U.S. farmers and food companies said Wednesday it is taking legal action to force government regulators to analyze potential problems with proposed biotech crops and the weed-killing chemicals to be sprayed over them.
Dow AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical, and Monsanto Co. are among several global chemical and seed companies racing to roll out combinations of genetically altered crops and new herbicides designed to work with the crops as a way to counter rapidly spreading herbicide-resistant weeds that are choking millions of acres of U.S. farmland.
Dow and Monsanto say the new chemical combinations and new crops that tolerate those chemicals are badly needed by corn, soybean and cotton farmers as weeds increasingly resist treatments of the most commonly used herbicide - glyphosate-based Roundup.
“They (farmers) need this new technology,” said Dow AgroScience Joe Vertin, global business leader for Dow’s new herbicide-protected crops called “Enlist.”
But critics say key ingredients in these new herbicides - 2,4-D for Dow and dicamba for Monsanto - already are in use in the marketplace and have proved damaging to “non-target” fields because they are hard to keep on target. Wind, heat and humidity can move the chemical particles miles down the road, damaging gardens, crops, trees. Many farms have suffered significant damage in recent years even though the chemicals are currently sprayed under tight restrictions.