• Common Ground •

Each of the past two years, at the New Jersey Farm Bureau Convention, I have proposed a resolution calling for the labeling of products containing Genetically Modified crops. Each of those years the resolution was seconded. After discussion that amounted to me stating my position and everyone else who spoke contesting my position each year my proposal has been emphatically defeated. Very briefly, the farmers who voted and spoke against are all concerned that GMOs are what they are planting because that is what the seed companies are selling and if it appears on a label they are afraid that people will not buy the products and thus they will suffer loss of sales. All the wrong reasons from my perspective. Each of those growers must sign a hold harmless clause when purchasing their GM seed that states that they[the growers] are accepting full liability if there is any problem with the crop. Kind of like buying a car, it is worth less the minute you drive it off the lot and all the headaches are yours.

Non-the-less, we need these growers to keep growing and be successful in agriculture if for no other reason than to preserve our local agricultural capacity. Here is more on this issue that affects every person in this country.

Excerpted from the Non-GMO Report

The Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed suit against the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the agencies' failure to adopt any pre-market safety requirements for genetically modified (GM) foods, and for failing to require labels so consumers can know when foods contain ingredients from GM crops. The CFS lawsuit calls for a mandatory, pre market regulatory review system for all GM foods. Currently, there are no binding FDA regulations to protect the public from the risks of the GM foods that are currently found in thousands of products on supermarket shelves. (my emphasis)

CFS and over fifty consumer and environmental groups, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, Physicians for Social REsponsibility, Natural REsources Defense Council, and others filed a detailed legal petition with FDA in March 2000, outlining the comprehensive approach that the agency should be taking to assess the health and safety issues from new GM foods.

Despite numerous attempts to engage the agency, FDA has refused to respond to this legal petition. The lawsuit challenges FDA's unreasonable delay in failing to respond to the March 2000 petition.

"For too long, the FDA has let biotech companies set the table for deregulation of GM food," said Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Center for Food Safety. "Over six years ago, we challenged the agency to come up with a scientific defense for their lax approach to GM foods. Their failure to respond demonstrates the lack of science behind their GM foods policy."

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