New agriculture law draws attention from GMO critics

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) continue to be a big issue for those campaigning for healthier food and more transparency within the industry. For years now, seed-providing giant Monsanto has been a constant source of concern among activists for its production of artificially altered seeds and chemical farming products. Last week, President Barack Obama officially signed bill HR 933, The Consolidated and Further Continuing Associations Act, which contains a subsection that would allegedly uphold the practice of using such products for food. It is an especially critical time for these issues to be discussed, as the question of whether or not to trust major producers and the information on food labels has entered the public sphere.

Within the text of the Act in question, Section 735 allows for the Secretary of Agriculture to give “temporary deregulation” to a “farmer, grower, farm operator or producer.” Opponents of this move have argued that the bill was written in collaboration with Monsanto itself and that the officials voting on it may not have realized the implications.

Though the provision comes as part of a short-term spending measure and is only set to last for the next six months, there is a worry that it will set a potentially dangerous standard and allow for the continuous government support of such food manufacturing methods.

Whatever the outcome of this developing issue, it is important that companies pay attention to the way they produce and design their labels. The use of a Primera LX900 color label printer can lead to the large-scale creation of easy, accurate product labels that represent the contents fairly and can be updated to reflect the latest industry specifications. Companies may see the need for such practices as the national conversation grows louder.