GMOs Need Labels!

GMO’s can be a very touchy subject, but in my opinion, the people of Canada should get to know if their food is genetically modified. I mean, if it is required that products have to be labelled with a list of the product’s ingredients, its nutritional values, and where is was grown or produced, I don’t think that it’d be asking too much to enlighten buyers are to whether their food is a GMO. Altering the genetics of a food is altering the food’s original state. If we were to add a new ingredient to a food, it’d have to be listed. So, why should altered genetics not be labelled?

GMOs and their effect on the long term health of the consuming population has been debated and is a highly controversial topic. GMOs are also being accused of causing problems and reactions for people with certain allergies. An article was published in In Motion Magaize that stands for the need for labelling foods and lists the common hazards that GMOs can cause to the population. An example of this is when Nebraska researchers used a Brazil-nut gene and spliced it into soybeans. The protein that was spliced from the nut and into the bean could potentially cause allergic reactions for children or adults living with nut allergies who ingest something made from one of these soybeans. Acording to an article published on Action on Bioscience.org by Arpad Pusztaie, a Ph.D. holder from the University of London, GMOs are still a very new science and needs to be further tested to discover the long term effects that new technology like this could have on the human body. This topic is just another reason for why GMOs should have to be labelled. It would offer the public a simple piece of mind and make people with these allergies feel more secure by knowing what they are consuming.

Some people have gone as far as saying that labelling GMO’s is a consumer right due to some of the reasons that I have listed above. The government claims that it would be too costly to label food that is genetically modified but, according to an article published by the Organic Consumers Organization, a study commissioned by Quebec’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Foods reveals that it would cost 28 million dollars Canadian. Compare that price to the first estimation of 950 million. So if it would actually only cost the new estimation, why would labelling food be such a bad idea?

But are Canadians willing to pay the extra price that would be incorporated into food prices for labelling? According to Dr. Wuyang Hu, a Post Doctoral Fellow in The Department of Rural Economy at the University of Alberta, who wrote his doctoral thesis, "Three Essays on Genetically Modified Food Labeling and Consumer Behavior", on how labeling GMO products could impact consumer behavior, he says,
"Consumers are willing to pay more money for more information about the food they are eating. Mandatory labeling does cost more, but the consumers are willing to pay that additional cost. I do not have a solution as to which is better economically, mandatory or voluntary labeling. That model would be too much work for a single PhD thesis. I focused on the consumer side. I hope, one day soon, someone will combine my research with the supply models so that we can have a clearer picture of the issue."

So, in conlusion, there is an abundence of reasons why GMOs shodl be labeled, as it would give consumers a simple piece of mind and prevent health related reaction risks like with allergies.