According to the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), 80 percent of the foods on your grocery store’s shelves contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs).¹ These foods are also most likely to be contaminated with toxic pesticide residues.

Just last month, the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) sued Post Holdings, Inc., for falsely marketing Shredded Wheat cereal as “100 percent natural” and “made with nothing but goodness,” after independent testing found it contained glyphosate² — hardly what health-conscious consumers would expect.

Alas, while Americans are getting savvier when it comes to making healthier food choices, and recent polling shows that 9 out of 10 Americans want to know if their food is genetically engineered (GE),³ big business has successfully usurped power, and politicians have by and large abandoned their constituents.

State and Consumer Rights Under Attack Yet Again

Senate negotiators have now made a deal⁴ to create a national labeling standard for GMOs using voluntary “Smart Labels” (so-called QR codes⁵) rather than clear labeling — a deal that goes against the 88 percent of Americans who have said NO to being forced to use a smartphone app to find this important information.

The new bill, S. 2609, would amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 with a national bioengineered food disclosure standard.^6,7 As noted in a June 23 newsletter by the Organic Consumers Association (OCA):

“It’s hard to know which is worse. The corporations that profit from poisoning your food and water. Or the politicians who will happily sell you down the river for a few campaign contributions.

Today, our ‘leaders’ in the U.S. Senate proudly announced that they’ve ‘reached a deal’ on a federal GMO labeling bill.

No matter how they spin it — and they will spin it — this ‘compromise’ is nothing more than a handout to Monsanto, an industry-brokered deal intended to legally sanction the right of corporations to deceive you, the consumer.”

Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety (CFS) has called the bill a “blow to to the food movement and America’s right to know,” adding it is “in many ways worse than prior iterations of the DARK Act that were defeated — it is a blank check for biotech.”⁸