THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

General Mills has decided to be the second major food processor to label GMO's in their products.

General Mills has announced it will start labeling products with genetically modified (GMO) ingredients, becoming the second major food company to make the transition following Campbell Soup’s decision last month.

The news comes as another blow to Big Food following the Senate’s rejection of Sen. Pat Roberts’ (R-Kan.) Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act (SAFE) Wednesday. The bill, dubbed by opponents as the Denying Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act, would have prevented states—namely Vermont—from requiring labeling of GMOs and stopped pending state laws that require labeling to go into effect.

Jeff Harmening, head of General Mills’ U.S. retail operations, addressed the national GMO debacle in a letter and explained that since his cereal company will be forced to label GMOs in Vermont by July 1—which is when the state’s labeling mandate takes effect—it should also extend GMO labeling to products sold across the nation.

He wrote in a letter, We need a national solution for GMO labeling, posted on the company website:

I have been eagerly awaiting a resolution of the GMO labeling debate in Washington and am disappointed that a national solution has still not been reached.

As the discussions continue in Washington, one thing is very clear: Vermont state law requires us to start labeling certain grocery store food packages that contain GMO ingredients or face significant fines.

We can’t label our products for only one state without significantly driving up costs for our consumers and we simply will not do that.

The result: consumers all over the U.S. will soon begin seeing words legislated by the state of Vermont on the labels of many of their favorite General Mills products.

The Cheerios maker’s announcement was praised by GMO labeling proponents. Scott Faber, the Environmental Working Group group’s senior vice president of government affairs, said the decision reflects the sentiment of the majority of Americans who want to know if they’re eating GMOs.

“Nine out of 10 Americans want the right to know whether their food contains GMOs—just like consumers in 64 other nations,” Faber said. “Like General Mills, we hope Congress will craft a national, mandatory GMO labeling solution and welcome the opportunity to work with industry to find a solution that works for consumers and works for the food industry.”

Most people aren't old enough to remember, but we went through the same kind of happy horseshit just to get the ingredients listed on food packages. And we still don't know half the chemicals in our foods because of exemptions. This is a good time to start buying General Mills and Campbells products to make it clear to the others that there is an advantage to be had.