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Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Peter DeFazio Circulate Letter Within Congress, Urging the Labeling of GE-Foods

There is some very good news to report regarding the campaign to get genetically-engineered foods labeled.

In response to The Center for Food Safety’s petition to the FDA that calls for the mandatory labeling of GE-foods, two members of Congress have now gotten behind this initiative.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) have circulated a bicameral letter (PDF) to fellow members of Congress urging them to sign onto this letter.

Aside from the fact that the U.S. is the only developed country in the world that doesn’t require the labeling of GE-foods, this letter eloquently points out that current FDA policy is denying consumers their basic rights – not being given basic information about what is in their food.

As it stands now, the FDA requires the disclosure of certain types of additives, processes and ingredients in food. Yet, when it comes to telling people whether food is genetically-modified or not, consumers are being left in the dark.

And what’s the real reason that the FDA doesn’t want to disclose this information?

Big Ag is very, very against it. They are afraid that the labeling of genetically-engineered foods (approximately 80% of everything on supermarket shelves contains GMOs) will hurt sales and make consumers more aware about what they are putting into their bodies.

MY TAKE

This is fantastic news that members of Congress are starting to take action on this very important issue and have begun the lobbying their fellow politicians.

What can you do?

Three things:

1) Sign the electronic petition urging your U.S. Senators and Representative to sign onto the letter as well. Click HERE to do this.

2) Make sure you watch the video and electronically sign the Just Label It campaign.

3) Spread this information to your network. We need as many people as we can to support this extremely important initiative.