General Mills to Start Labeling GMOs Nationwide!
Thank you General Mills!
The cereal giant has announced it will become the second major food company to start labeling their genetically modified(GMO) products. This news comes just as the Senate rejected Sen. Pat Roberts'(R-Kan) ‘Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act’, or as you might know it the DARK(Denying Americans the Right to Know)Act, last Wednesday, March 16th. Had the DARK Act passed, it would have denied states the right to label GMOs and stopped pending state laws that require the labeling to go into effect.
Eco Watch reports that the head of GMs U.S. retail operations, Jeff Harmening, wrote a letter addressing this issue:
“I have been eagerly awaiting a resolution of the GMO labeling debate in Washington and am disappointed that a national solution has still not been reached. As the discussions continue in Washington, one thing is very clear: Vermont state law requires us to start labeling certain grocery store food packages that contain GMO ingredients or face significant fines.
We can’t label our products for only one state without significantly driving up costs for our consumers and we simply will not do that. The result: consumers all over the U.S. will soon begin seeing words legislated by the state of Vermont on the labels of many of their favorite General Mills products.”
“Nine out of 10 Americans want the right to know whether their food contains GMOs—just like consumers in 64 other nations,” said Scott Faber, the Environmental Working Group’s senior vice president of government affairs, reports Eco Watch. And the chairman of the Just Label It campaign, Gary Hirshberg, was also excited about General Mills’ move. He believes that allowing consumers the basic info their desire is the right thing to do, “More than 60,000 consumers thanked Campbells when they announced their commitment to greater transparency, and I am sure consumers will reward General Mills for trusting consumers to make their own choices.”
It seems that our Senators realize that now is the time to enact uniform and mandatory legislation that will allow consumers to know whether their foods contain GMOs. If companies like General Mills and Campbell’s can do it, and many companies are already doing it in Europe and Russia, then other companies should be able to do it as well. After all, “we the people” have spoken.
And here’s some good news for other companies watching this debate: Campbell’s has seen its stock price rise since making the announcement to stop using GMOs!
This is good news, one more down…loads to go. Hang in there everyone, we can make a difference!
Source: Eco Watch
