With less than four weeks to go, the GMO labeling campaign is firing on all cylinders — organizing a benefit concert and farm-to-table dinner this week, stepping up phone-banking and grassroots efforts, and touting the release of two studies that boost their case for the Nov. 4 ballot.
Consumer Reports weighed in Tuesday morning with a national study that shows that most foods labeled “natural” actually contain genetically modified organisms.
To that end, the not-for-profit organization announced they’re asking the federal government to ban the use of “natural” labels on food.
“Virtually all the samples that made only a natural claim had GMOs,” says Urvashi Rangan, director of the safety and sustainability center at Consumer Reports. “And yet more than 60 percent of people in our national survey though that natural meant no GMOs.”
Consumer Reports of New York independently tests products and doesn’t participate in advertising. However a Consumers Union senior staff scientist appears in one of the TV ads for Measure 92. The group’s scientists have also been using language that is in favor of the GMO labeling effort.
“The federal government hasn’t mandated that GMOs be proven safe before they’re used in your food,” Rangan says in the latest news release about the “natural” label testing. “There hasn’t been enough research to know whether GMOs are harmful to people, but scientists around the world agree genetically engineering has the potential to introduce allergens or other unintended changes that could affect human health... .”
Meanwhile last week a study by Portland’s EcoNorthwest cited the cost of the GMO food labeling measure at less than a penny a day, which contradicts studies touted by the opposition.
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