More than 50,000 Consumers Demand USDA Provide Clear, Consumer-Friendly GMO Labels

For Immediate Release

July 3, 2018

More than 50,000 Consumers Demand USDA Provide Clear, Consumer-Friendly GMO Labels

WASHINGTON – More than 50,000 consumers are urging the Trump administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ensure new GMO disclosures are clear and accessible, and no GMO foods are exempt from the new disclosure law.

The Just Label It campaign circulated petitions and alerts in response to the USDA’s proposed disclosure rules, which could exempt all foods made with GMO ingredients like refined sugars and oils. Under the proposed rules, companies would also use the term “bioengineered food” or BE, instead of “genetically modified” or “genetically engineered” – the most common terms for genetically altered foods.

“The USDA should listen to the vast majority of consumers who want to know what foods are made with GMOs,” said JLI Chairman Gary Hirshberg. “Fudging with the labels and allowing many GMO foods to wiggle through a loophole so companies don’t have to disclose them may be what Big Food wants, but it’s not what 90 percent of Americans from across the political spectrum have demanded. Americans want to know if their food is made with genetically engineered ingredients. Period.”

Today is the last day for the public to provide comments to the USDA on its proposed GMO disclosure rule.