Since the scientific consensus is that GMO products are not harmful, this sounds like the perfect kind of problem that can be solved by the market. If enough people don’t want GMO foods, businesses will label for business reasons. But because the products are not harmful, according to the best science available, the government should not make any requirements here, IMO.
By the way, I haven’t heard of any genetically modified carrots making it to market.* The only GM veggies/fruits that one might encounter are some Hawaiian papayas, squash and sweet corn.
*Someone posted a blog article claiming that “baby carrots” are GM, which seems to be a fable. From what I can tell, all the “baby carrots” offered for sale are actually full-size carrots cut up into small sizes. They do however contain DNA. :eek:
In the US, the answer is easy: yes, it has GM ingredients.
If you don’t want GM ingredients, there are already multiple options to avoid them. The easiest to find is anything marked with the “USDA Organic” label.
Imagine producing something like ketchup. You have a dozen different types of produce ingredients in your ketchup (sugar, corn syrup, tomatoes, onions, paprika, pepper, vinegar). To prevent having to declare your product as GMO Free, you must certify all of the ingredients from farm to your factory. How much does this add to the cost.
Even kosher certification which also requires sourcing ingredients isn’t as strict as GMO sourcing. Certain products are just assumed to be kosher and don’t need direct certification. Not so with GMO. You need a certification process even before farmers plant their crops.
if a manufacturer wants to go through such a certification process, they may do so right now. They can declare their products to be GMO free and charge a premium – which with any luck – will be high enough to cover the extra costs associated with certification.
What you want is equivalent of all manufacturers must certify their products as kosher, or be forced to put on a label that their product is non-kosher. And, we don’t even cover who gets to certify the entire process.
Is it beet or cane sugar? :eek:
I will leave it to someone else to make a joke about an Irishman knowing his potatoes. Nope, not even I would stoop so low.
I like eating Roundup-resistant corn. It adds a safety margin to the Roundup resistance I already have from not being a plant.
Lol
what I don’t get is why the expectation with labeling be that they actually test to make sure therer are no GMOs in the food. Isn’t it enough to just not buy from GMO farms? However dominant the genes are and however common the plants become, it would seem to me that there’s enough room out there that the plants won’t cross breed that much. And expecially it neds to be considered most farmers buy their seed, which is grown on specific seed farms.
Increased costs can and do decrease revenue. Every time I spend a dollar on my production costs I have fewer dollars to put into sales.
Did you read the article I posted? There are 250 known commercial varieties of baby carrots that are grown specifically to have a thinner diameter and no core, and are sweeter. However, yes, they are longer carrots that are cut and peeled into short rounded shapes.
How do you know that you’re buying from a non-GMO farm? Take the farmer’s word for it? Not sure that that will fly. Glad to know you don’t think the plants will breed but some people aren’t as trusting.
Have any been produced using genetic modification techniques and are now on the market?
Is there an echo in here? 
I have no information on that, but I don’t think so.
I was confirming what you said.
This actually isn’t true. Everything at Whole Foods is organic if I’m not mistaken, but the staff tells me that their products are not all GMO-free. Apparently they are working on it. And, of course, the easiest way for a consumer to be able to avoid (or choose!) GM products is by putting those two letters on the label.
Sorry to take so long to respond, everybody. I should be able to get back to this tonight.
Why do you want to avoid GM products, but not products that use certain pesticides etc?
I think you’re mistaken. From Whole Foods’ website:
“We offer more organic choices every day, as all organic foods sold in the US must be certified to the USDA National Organic Standards, which prohibit the use of GMOs”
That would seem to indicate that 1) Whole Foods’ stock is not completely organic, and 2) labeling something as organic means following a legal requirement that it not contain GMO ingredients.
Eat organic and you don’t need any labeling pertaining to GMOs, unless you have a political/ideologic agenda to discourage their sale.
Any product with the “USDA Organic” logo is GMO free. PDF pamphlet.
USDA says "The use of genetic engineering, or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), is prohibited in organic products. "
http://blogs.usda.gov/2013/05/17/organic-101-can-gmos-be-used-in-organic-products/
There’s also the “certified non-GMO” label, for foodstuffs that are GMO-free but don’t necessarily meet the standards for USDA Organic.
Even if you do buy organic food to avoid those “unsafe” GMOs, you might wind up eating something that has real potential to cause harm (check out the “organic” ginger imported from China, which turned out to contain a pesticide that wasn’t even approved for spraying on conventional ginger crops).
And domestically grown organic crops are not free from health worries either.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/interviews/hotchkiss.html
Question regarding if traditional cross-breeding techniques are inherently safer: