U.S. House moves to block state efforts at mandatory GMO labeling

[Sargerasraider]

H.R. 1599’s backers believe their bill strikes a good balance. The bill would block mandatory GMO labeling laws such as Vermont’s. But it also would set up a voluntary, national program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture for food producers who want to seek non-GMO certification. As an added measure, the bill would make mandatory a currently voluntary consultation process that regulators have long used to review the safety of GMOs, which allows the Food and Drug Administration to block the sale of any food it deems unsafe or lacking sufficient safety data.

http://news.sciencemag.org/policy/20...eling-gm-foods

As GMO foods have never been shown to be harmful by any reputable scientific body, I think that this strikes a good balance. It provides a uniform voluntary method to label something as GMO free (if that is what some customers want), while not forcing producers to place a label for no good scientific reason that could be seen as stigmatizing. What do you think?

[Independent voter]

Bernie Sanders, a US Senator from Vermont says to beware the GMO Industrial Complex

“When you take on very powerful biotech companies like Monsanto and large food corporations, who, in many ways, would prefer that people not know what is in the food that they produce, they’re very powerful,” said Sanders. “They were able to gather a whole lot of support in the Senate.”

[Nengal]

Since when has lacking scientific evidence ever stopped the political process? Mandatory GMO labeling laws should be blocked and I'm glad that something is being done to stop the craziness.

On the flip side, the FDA is a sham and giving them the authority to just randomly block shit from being sold (which I assume they pretty much have anyways) is scary. The FDA is close to useless. Look how long it took them to do something about Trans Fats (Something that actually IS harmful).