As recently reported by this blog, the labeling of genetically modified (GM) food has been an issue of serious debate. Now, a new group of Californians are actively up in arms, demanding clarity and insight from these food processors – a trend that is increasing in consumer demand.
A May 2 article in BusinessWeek explains that a petition of 971,126 citizens has been signed. The petition proposes that companies who produce GM foods must label their products as such. With this petition, the Right to Know campaign, as it is being called, has generated 75 percent more signatures than what is required to legitimize the proposal in the state of California. According to BusinessWeek, if the state certifies all its signatures and the bill gains a 50 percent approval vote on the November 6 state elections, the proposal would become a law.
“The right to know is as American as apple pie,” said Gary Ruskin – the Oakland-based manager for the campaign, to BusinessWeek. “Monsanto and some other chemical and agricultural biotech companies are desperate to keep the public in the dark about what is really in their food.”
According to BusinessWeek, about 80 percent of processed foods are genetically modified. After many smaller bills supporting this cause were rejected in 19 states, as well as a petition sent to the Food and Drug Administration last month. This has caused many to believe that California’s proposal is the best chance advocates have to require food processors to label GM foods.
If local grocers or farmer’s market vendors wish to promote an all-natural product, or just maintain a higher level of honesty and clarity with its consumers by labeling all its ingredients, then they may want to invest in a color label printer to produce these informative custom labels.
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