NEW FDA Food Labels: What's Missing

For all you who just ♥ Michelle Obama, you need to remember that she Does Note Love You but she does Love GMO's for the people......

What, No GMO Labels?

When Michelle Obama speaks, the media listens. And listen they did on February 27, when Mrs. Obama went to bat for the FDA’s proposed new-and-improved rules for labels on food.

What should consumers expect? More realistic (as in larger) serving sizes. Calorie counts in bigger and bolder type. Out with Vitamin A and in with Vitamin D and potassium.

What won’t you see on the new labels? Any mention of whether or not your food purchase contains GMOs (genetically modified organisms).

It’s great the Mrs. Obama is championing better nutrition for kids. But no discussion of better nutrition, better health, better food and better food labels is even remotely complete without addressing consumers’ number one food policy concern: GMOs.

In 2012 we launched a MoveOn.org petition asking Mrs. Obama to remind President Obama of his 2007 campaign promise to label GMOs. She ignored our more than 207,000 petitions. And President Obama has done nothing to honor his promise.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Michelle Obama: Consumers Want Labels on Genetically Modified Foods!

Read the press release

The GMO Elephant in the Room

When’s the last time you signed a petition or wrote a letter urging the FDA or Congress or your state legislator to add Vitamin A or potassium to the nutrition label on packaged foods?

Do you recall ever petitioning anyone to change the serving sizes listed on food labels? Or to increase the font size used to list calories? 

More likely, the only label change you’ve argued for or campaigned for has been one that tells you whether or not your food has been genetically modified.

On February 27, First Lady Michelle Obama launched a media blitz to tout the FDA’s proposed new rules for nutrition labels on packaged foods. Both the FDA and Mrs. Obama trumpeted the changes, the first in 20 years and 10 years in the making, as being designed to help consumers “make healthy food choices for their kids.”

Conspicuously absent from the media hype was any mention of the one label that consumers have been crystal clear about wanting, the label that consumers in nearly 60 other countries have but Americans don’t—a label that tells us whether or not our cereal or soda or mac & cheese contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Read the essay