---
title: "Genetically modified food controversies"
chunk: 18/21
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:17:47.717639+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

==== Status ====
In 2014, 64 countries required labeling of all GM foods. These include the European Union, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, China and India. As of March 2015, Israel was in the process of issuing regulations for labeling of food with ingredients from GMOs.
Alaska required labeling of GMO fish and shellfish in 2005, even though no GM fish had been approved by the FDA at the time.  A 2014 Vermont law went into effect on July 1, 2016, and some food manufacturers (including General Mills, Mars, Kellogg's, the Campbell Soup Company, PepsiCo, ConAgra, Frito-Lay, and Bimbo Bakeries USA) began distributing products either locally or nationwide with labels such as "Partially produced with Genetic Engineering".  Other manufacturers removed about 3,000 non-compliant products from sale in Vermont.  The federal government of the United States passed a law at the end of that month pre-empting all state laws, including Vermont's.  The law requires labeling regulations to be issued by July 2018, and allows indirect disclosure such as with a phone number, bar code, or web site.  It is unclear whether the rules will require labeling of oils and sugars from GM crops, where the final product does not contain any "genetic material" as mentioned in the law.
Prior to the new federal rules taking effect, while it does require pre-market approval, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not required GMO labeling as long as there are no differences in health, environmental safety, and consumer expectations based on the packaging.
The federal rules come after GMO labeling was debated in many state legislatures and defeated in popular referendums in Oregon (2002 and 2014), Colorado (2014), California Proposition 37 (2012), and Washington Initiative 522 (2012). Connecticut and Maine had passed laws in 2013 and 2014 respectively, which would have required GMO food labels if Northeast states with a population of at least 20 million had passed similar laws (and for Connecticut, representing at least four states).
Other jurisdictions make such labeling voluntary or have had plans to require labeling.  Major GM food crop exporters like the United States (until 2018), Argentina, and Canada have adopted voluntary labeling approaches; China and Brazil have major GM (largely non-food) crops and have adopted mandatory labelling.

==== Arguments ====
The American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have opposed mandatory labeling absent scientific evidence of harm. The AMA said that even voluntary labeling is misleading unless accompanied by focused consumer education. The AAAS stated that mandatory labeling "can only serve to mislead and falsely alarm consumers".

[Labeling] efforts are not driven by evidence that GM foods are actually dangerous. Indeed, the science is quite clear: crop improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe. Rather, these initiatives are driven by a variety of factors, ranging from the persistent perception that such foods are somehow "unnatural" and potentially dangerous to the desire to gain competitive advantage by legislating attachment of a label meant to alarm. Another misconception used as a rationale for labeling is that GM crops are untested.
The American Public Health Association, the British Medical Association and the Public Health Association of Australia support mandatory labeling. The European Commission argued that mandatory labeling and traceability are needed to allow for informed choice, avoid potential misleading of consumers and facilitate the withdrawal of products if adverse effects on health or the environment are discovered.  A 2007 review on the effect of labeling laws found that once labeling went into effect, few products continued to contain GM ingredients.

=== Objectivity of regulatory bodies ===
Groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists and Center for Food Safety that have expressed concerns about the FDA's lack of a requirement for additional testing for GMO's, lack of required labeling and the presumption that GMO's are "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS), have questioned whether the FDA is too close to companies that seek approval for their products.
Critics in the U.S. protested the appointment of lobbyists to senior positions in the Food and Drug Administration. Michael R. Taylor, a former Monsanto lobbyist, was appointed as a senior adviser to the FDA on food safety in 1991. After leaving the FDA, Taylor became a vice-president of Monsanto. On 7 July 2009, Taylor returned to government as a senior adviser to the FDA Commissioner.
In 2001, when the Starlink corn recall became public, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was criticized for being slow to react by Joseph Mendelson III of the Center for Food Safety. He also criticized the EPA and Aventis CropScience for statements at the time of the recall, that indicated they did not anticipate that such a thing would happen.
The Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee that reviewed Canada's regulations in 2003 was accused by environmental and citizen groups of not representing the full spectrum of public interests and for being too closely aligned to industry groups.
Most of the Chinese National Biosafety Committee are involved in biotechnology, a situation that led to criticisms that they do not represent a wide enough range of public concerns.

=== Litigation and regulation disputes ===