Food Safety News proposes GMO ‘Right to Know’ label that actually helps consumers

Dan Flynn, the editor of Food Safety News floats a radical idea that could transform the GMO: The right to know something important:

Instead of the “right to know” blather we’ve been hearing since before California in 2012, how about we all agree on a “right to know something important” labeling plan. Here’s the idea: We’d come up with a uniform approach with a panel on all food packages listing all your various food types; GMO, organic, conventional, non-GMO, etc.

Behind each one there would first be an on or off  or red light, green light indicator, like with the light “on” if the product is organic. Then, and here’s where it gets good, there would be more indicators on the panel after the food type indicators: recalls, outbreaks, illnesses, and death. We’d rely on the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to update these numbers every year. We’d have to work out the details, but think of the true consumer benefit that would result from this approach versus the failed initiatives of the past.

This new approach would create a powerful new incentive for food safety. Food companies would do everything possible to make sure their package did not have to report any illnesses or — god forbid — deaths on their product labels for the next year. Consumers, who are often misinformed about food safety, would be educated at the check-out counter and could make more informed decisions.

The “right to know something important” labeling campaign is going to require bringing both the GMO and the organic camps together. That assumes either of them would want something important on the label, but that is something I seriously doubt.

Read full original articleLetter From the Editor: Right to Know Something Important

 

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