Pros And Cons Of Labeling

The Label Debate
Many are not aware of the ongoing debate of whether or not products in grocery stores across the country should label their products in a way to provide consumer awareness regarding foods containing genetically modified ingredients. One statistic states, “an estimated sixty to seventy percent of processed foods in grocery stores contain at least one genetically engineered ingredient” (Byrne). This statistic reveals the prevalence of these ingredients found in grocery stores, yet the effects they have on the products Americans consume can be proven very minor. Throughout various studies and research there are countless reasons why labelling these foods can be viewed as unnecessary. Genetically-modified foods should not have
What many do not realize is that in order to label these products effectively, we must develop standards that allow the labels to be equally and accurately distributed amongst all genetically modified foods. Certain questions must be answered, such as determining what percentage of genetically modified ingredients there are in a certain product in order for it to be considered for a label. Debates over whether the percentage standards should be .01% or 1% have been discussed, while other countries such as Japan have a minimum percentage rate of 5% (Byrne). In addition, the decision of labelling products produced from livestock that are fed genetically modified crops remains unanswered. This issue can be found irrelevant due to the fact that there is no difference found in meat, egg, or dairy products derived from GM fed livestock and non-GM fed livestock. Overall, one can see that the idea of labeling genetically modified products is not only difficult, but an extremely controversial and undefined
Conventional foods can be defined as the crops grown on farms such as corn or sugar using herbicides or pesticides. Throughout various tests on GM foods versus conventional foods, it has been proven that GM foods have no nutritional difference from conventional foods and do not place any greater effect on human health (Lawrence). Furthermore, the FDA already requires foods that do possess a significantly different nutritional value due to modifications must provide labelling that exposes the nutritional changes. Examples of circumstances where these labels would be mandatory are when they contain certain allergens that consumers would not expect or a toxin that could be harmful when excessively consumed is present (Byrne). Labels on foods are used to notify consumers of when they are purchasing foods that are harmful to their health and genetically modified foods do not fall into that category. In short, placing these labels on all genetically modified foods is excessive due to the small differences they carry regarding their nutritional value and