How Much Will Labeling Genetically Engineered Foods Really Cost? 2015 Edition
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How Much Will Labeling Genetically Engineered Foods ReallyCost? But the industry's most requently repeated claims about the cost olabeling are based on cherry-picked economic analyses and extreme scenarios. The biggest ood companies and agri- businesses are worried that consumers will be wary o“scary - sounding” GMO labels. 1 But iGMO products are as s ae and natural as these companies claim, then why not let consumers decide what they want to buy? Food Industry Claim: GMO labeling is unnecessary. Consumers deserve the right to know what's in the ood that they are providing or their amilies. Not only is GMO label- ing required in other countries, but the U.S. public has b een clamoring or it or years. A 2 010 Thomson Reuters survey oconsumers ound 93 percent in support oGMO labeling. 2 And 91 percent ovoters polled in a 2012 Mellman Group study avored having the U.S. Foo d and Drug Administration (FDA) require labels on GMO oods or oods containing GMO in- gredients; othose, 81 percent “strongly avored” the labeling proposal. 3 A 2013 New York Times poll ound that 93 percent orespondents were in avor oa mandatory label or geneti- cally engineered ood. 4 With labeling, consumers would be able to ind out the di- erences in how various oods were produced and decide or themselves what those differences mean. Whether or not someone chooses to read a label is entirely their choice, but people deserve the right to know what they are buying, eating and eeding to their amilies. Food companies always seem to ind room on the label to make a marketing claim — such as “new and improved” or “all-natural ” — to try to convince us to buy, but somehow they cannot ind any space ithey are required to tell us a act about the process b y which the item was produced. A label stating that a product is genetically engineered will not mislead customers; it would simply provide the acts about the ood they are eating. Food Industry Claim:GMO labeling means higher food costs. Opponents osome labeling proposals claim that mandatory GMO ood labeling would increase ood costs “or the aver- age amily by $600 per year.” 5 These kinds oclaims are ofen based on analyses done by labeling opponents in the ood industry and are ar rom objective examinations othe acts. It is not very surprising that a study with those kinds oigures was commissioned by the Grocery Manuacturers As- sociation. According to a recent GMA report that has not been made public, the cost olabeling would end up being as much S ince he firsgeneically engineered (GMO) crops were inroduced in he Unied Saes in he 1990s, consumers have nobeen able o ell wheher hey are eaing hese conroversial new ingredie ns. And whenever he subjecof mandaory labeling of GMO foods comes up, he food indusry claims halabeling will be prohibiively expensive.
