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President Obama Caves to Big Food, Signs DARK Act

File Image: (c) Photabulous!

New GMO label law has passed.

President Obama signed into law what many are calling the 'Non-labelling' GMO bill.

There are two names for H.R. 1599, the controversial bill concerning GMO labelling. The official name, The SAFE Act (Safe and Accurate Food Labelling Act) , or as opponents have dubbed it the DARK Act (Deny Americans the Right to Know Act).

But the H.R. 1599 is not about whether GMO's should be banned in the US, because they are already prevalent. Close to 90% of domestically grown corn and soy crops are genetically engineered or modified according to recent trends in GE adoption reported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

It is about whether genetically modified foods should be clearly labelled so the consumer knows and is aware of what they are purchasing. And polls do find that two-thirds of Americans do want GMO food labels on food packages.

But the bill passed into law yesterday, will prevent states from mandating clear and easily identifiable GMO labels for food packages. It will negate the recent, more stringent GMO labelling laws that just came into effect in Vermont and other states such as Connecticut and Maine, and preempt other states from passing their own labelling laws.

The DARK Act states that "The FDA may require a GMO food to have a label that informs consumers of a material difference between the GMO food and a comparable food if the disclosure is necessary to protect public health and safety or to prevent the label from being false or misleading. The use of a GMO does not, by itself, constitute a material difference."

Big Food, Big Agra and giant biotech companies like Monsanto have clearly won the day.

The murky wording means their will be lots of loopholes and labelling will essentially be up to the discretion of business producing the 'product' - otherwise known as food. It will give them the option for example of using smartphone scannable QR codes, bar codes, or contact information, all measures that do not present a clear message of foods that include GMO ingredients, and present hurdles for the shopper to track down the information.

It would appear that the large food and biotech corporations completely control the information we need to know for our health. They have overridden the democratic process at a most fundamental level by obscuring the true composition of the food we eat.

GruntVegan