Farm Labor
June 25, 2015
Farmland Speculation
July 16, 2015Food Chain Radio Show #1020
Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist
Safe & Accurate Food Labeling Act
or…
Deny Americans the Right to Know Act (DARK Act)
This Poll is closed!!
Guests: Open Microphone
To know, or not to know, is the question!
On one side stand the 90% of consumers – give or take – who want to know. On the other side stand the producers who do not want consumers to know.
Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – The DARK Act – Should government restrict what consumers know about food?
Many consumers, all but a few of whom live in cities where they have little or no connection with the origins of their food, want to know what’s in food, especially if the ingredients include genetically-modified organisms (GMOs). To get this information, consumers have been passing around initiatives and taking votes throughout the United States to require the labeling of GMO foods, as is already required by 64 countries throughout the world.
Producers, on the other hand, seemed disinclined to provide the information consumers want as to whether food contains, or does not contain, GMOs. In fact, producers have spent in the neighborhood of $100 million dollars to defeat GMO labeling initiatives in just a few of the nation’s states.
Given the amount of money producers spend to fight off consumers, it would seem quite reasonable for them to find a different way to fight, and so naturally they have turned to Washington, D.C., where they hope to pass one federal law to prevent all states laws from requiring the labeling of GMOs.
Producers call their legislation the “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act;”and many consumers call it the “Deny Americans the Right to Know, or “DARK Act.”
And so we to ask…
Leave a comment below: Should government restrict what consumers may know about food?
Tune in here, for the syndicated Food Chain Radio Show #1020 July 11, 2015 Saturday 9AM Pacific
1 Comment
You seem to have put producers into one category? Not sure where you get your information but many producers support food labeling. Family farms and ranches are supportive of labeling what our consumers put in their mouth. Corporate Ag is behind most of the anti labeling efforts. GMO’s are not the only effort you should look at COOL or country of origin labeling. US House of Rep’s recently repealed a 2005 law that requires meat packers to label born raised and processed. Soon you to will be eating shit from other countries. The answer for this is to BUY LOCAL.