Cereal giant General Mills announced on March 18th that it will start labeling its products for GMO content nationwide in order to comply with a Vermont GMO labeling law scheduled to go into effect on July 1st of this year. In this the company joins the Campbell Soup Company, which announced in February that it would label its products for GMO content voluntarily ahead of the law. Both companies support federal legislation that would prevent a patchwork of confusing and/or contradictory state labeling laws by establishing a national standard for labeling.
Despite various state and federal efforts over the years championed by Big Ag, GMO seed producers and agrochemical companies to prevent foods from being labeled for GMO content, the latest effort failed by one vote in December as a policy rider attached to the federal omnibus spending bill in the Senate. Close to 90% of Americans surveyed support mandatory GMO labeling of food products. Gary Hirshberg, chairman of the Just Label It campaign and Stonyfield Farm had this to say:
General Mills has shown real leadership by committing to provide consumers basic information about their food. More than 60,000 consumers thanked Campbells when they announced their commitment to greater transparency, and I am sure consumers will reward General Mills for trusting consumers to make their own choices. I applaud their leadership for recognizing that consumers simply want to know what's in their food and how it's grown.
Senators on both sides of this issue now need to realize that the marketplace is moving far faster than our legislators, and that the time has come to enact uniform mandatory legislation that makes it easy for consumers to see at a glance whether their foods contain GMOs. If large companies like General Mills, Campbells and Nestle are accepting that this is what consumers want, then so should our political representatives. It is now the time to put this debate behind us and realize that the citizens have spoken.
As the big American food producers move to voluntary GMO labeling in response to customer demand, a federal labeling law becomes inevitable. When that happens the United States will join 64 other nations (so far) with GMO labeling requirements.
Tiny Vermont Brings Food Industry to Its Knees on GMO Labels