GMO Labeling Bill Passes Committee

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From: Nicole Dallara <nicole.dallara_at_sierraclub.org>

For Immediate Release
June 17, 2013 Contact Jeff Tittel, 609-558-9100
  GMO Labeling Bill Passes Committee
  The Assembly Budget passed A3192 by party line vote, which requires the labeling of all foods containing genetically modified material (GMOs). This legislation is important because the public has a right to know what is in their food. This bill is purely about labeling just like we have labeling for high fructose corn syrup, organic blue berries, and preservatives in our food. New Jersey has always been a leader in taken on these types of issues. We were the first state to pass right to know legislation on chemicals, water supply, and first to pass fertilizer legislation. We lead and other states followed. We need this legislation because consumers should be allowed to make an informed choice when purchasing food.
  "New Jersey has been a leader in informing its residents on what's in the environment whether air, water, or food we eat. This legislation is not about generically engineered foods this is about consumers having a right to know what is in the food that they eat. Some people may have concerns about these foods others may like them. This is about consumers having the knowledge to make a choice," said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.
  Right now millions of New Jersey residents are eating and using GMO products without knowing it with an explosion of GMO products on grocery shelves. Most corn, soy, sugar beets, canola and cotton are now genetically modified, and more than 30 other crops are currently being tested in field trials. A 2012 Environmental Working Group study conservatively estimates that the average American is now eating more than their weight in genetically engineered food each year. GMOs also lead to less biodiversity and an increasing resistance to pesticides. GMOs is genetic manipulation not natural selection. Genetically engineered goods are made through gene splicing in a laboratory to try to manipulate different genes to get a certain outcome, while hybridization is natural selection. It is taking seeds from the largest sunflower in your garden to try and get bigger sunflowers next year versus doing splicing in a laboratory. Numerous polls have found that Americans want GE products labeled. In regards to labeling in different states there are companies already doing that. Some states require recycling like 10 cents Massachusetts and a nickel in New York, which is found on the bottles. The industry has been labeling for different states successfully for years.
  "Throughout the world there are labeling requirements dealing with GMOs in the European Union, Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. People in New Jersey deserve to have the same information the people in other countries have," said Jeff Tittel. "I have been buying Welch's grape jam made with natural sugar without high fructose corn syrup. I like it a lot because it is like the jam I used to have as a child. I know it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it because it is labeled."
 

 --  Nicole Dallara, Outreach Coordinator New Jersey Sierra Club  145 W. Hanover Street Trenton, NJ 08618 609-656-7612 >