The Right to Know Colorado GMO proposition 105 mandates the labeling of GMO food products. Since consumers like to know what they eat, the idea of GMO labeling is appealing. However, the proposal is ill-conceived and poorly written. It creates more confusion than enlightenment, it will dramatically increase the costs of foods, and taxpayers will face huge legal bills defending the law. A recent analysis of GMO labeling costs by two Cornell University scientists pegged the costs at $500 per family of 4 per year. Three similar studies carried out in California and Washington State have calculated price tags of $400-800. Why do we need to have mandatory GMO food labeling when voluntarily labeled non-GMO products are readily available?

The GMO food labeling law only requires information on whether a given product was produced by a GMO. It will not inform the consumer what type of genetic change has been made to the organism (has a new gene been added? has an existing gene been silenced or its activity been increased as in classic breeding? has the plant been “vaccinated” to fight viral diseases, or does it produce a toxin to kill corn borers, or a pheromone gas that drives away aphids?). It will not provide information about the composition or the nutritional properties of the product, nor information about the amount of GMO product contained in the food. Finally, it will not inform the consumer whether the food contains genetically engineered molecules, or if – as in the case of refined sugar produced from GM sugar beets – it is free of GMO molecules.

According to studies by the National Academy of Sciences and the American Medical Association there is no science-based or medical reason to single out GM foods for mandatory labeling since they have been extensively evaluated and determined to be safe. To counter this finding, anti-GMO groups have started to finance certain “Academies” that support their claims, like the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, which is referred to by Quackwatch as a “questionable organization.”

What makes GMO labeling so expensive? Some of these costs are already evident in certified organic products. Between 2008 and 2011 the average cost for organic ice cream, margarine spreads and eggs were 100 percent higher than of conventional products, and in 2012/13 organic fruit and vegetable prices averaged 50-100 percent higher. The proposed GMO labeling is more stringent: It will require keeping track of and segregating all crops and products from seed purchase to food sale, regular testing for purity, mandatory reporting of the status of millions of products to a regulatory agency, and law enforcement. GMO labeling would place a huge financial burden on small farmers and business owners. Larger food companies that handle millions of packaged food products per day will have to set up sophisticated testing laboratories and hire hundreds of bookkeepers and lawyers to comply with a multitude of state labeling requirements and to police foreign-made products.

If the labeling initiative is accepted, organizations like Green Peace will make life miserable for firms selling GMO-containing foods as it has done in other countries. Some firms will try to reformulate their products, but finding substitutes at reasonable prices may be difficult. Chicken bouillon might contain sugar from GM sugar beets, maltodextrin from GM corn, and hydrolysed protein and tocopherol (vitamin E) from GM soybeans. In 2013 93 percent of the soybeans produced in the U.S. were of the GMO type, but only 0.17 percent were organic. Even doubling the demand for organic soybeans would lead to huge price changes in this commodity alone.

In conclusion, the main purposes of the GMO labeling initiative are to satisfy “consumer curiosity” and to increase the sales and profits of the organic food industry, which funded the initiative. The costs will be huge, the benefits to consumers small, and the bureaucracy needed immense. Is the proposed GMO food labeling worth $500 for a family of four?

Andrew Staehelin is a professor emeritus of the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder.