GMO mandatory labeling gets a shrug from consumers Starting this year, all products made using genetically engineered ingredients will have to be labeled with the words “bioengineered”. The law will not cause any significant changes, other than requiring additional work for manufacturers and food producers.
According to research, consumers will not change their behaviour if genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are made mandatory.
In a paper published in November 2021, Cornell University researchers, Massachusetts Amherst and Wisconsin-Madison stated that mandatory labeling didn’t have an additional effect on demand “in the presence of already voluntary non GMO labels.” Our findings indicate that non-GMO voluntary labels could be an effective disclosure tool without the need for mandatory GMO labeling.
Examining the GMO Labeling Act in several States and Vermont’s adoption, the authors discovered that consumers may be more aware of GMO Labeling if there is public discussion. VoluntaryLabeled non-GMO. Their findings showed that consumers were more aware of non-GMO products and have adopted them even if mandatory labeling is not implemented.
Megan Poinski points out that “Contrary previous studies, which suggested mandatory labels on products with bioengineered ingredients would cause big swings of consumer preferences and buys,” this study shows a much more moderate effect. Dive Food. News about GMO foods was what motivated consumers to make changes in their behavior.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has admitted that new federal regulations mandating the labeling of bioengineered food—passed in 2016 under former President Barack Obama and finalized by the Trump administration—may be useless. The USDA stated in 2018 that it “is unlikely to have any beneficial effects on human health and the environment.”
However, the changes can be costly. According to the USDA, the estimated costs for the new proposal are approximately [mandatory labeling]”The cost would run from $598million to $3.5billion for the first fiscal year with continuing annual costs between $114m and $225m,” it stated. “The new regulations are not only ineffective, but they will also increase food costs for consumers,” it said. There are reasonsRon Bailey, the author of this article, pointed it out.
Baylen Linkin, food policy writer Baylen has been warning for years that the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Act was “a bad law and unlikely to work.” Labeling requirements are also confusing.
The final rule allows food producers to market a product that has been genetically modified or contains GMO ingredients. They can comply with these rules by: 1) using clear language on a label, 2) using the USDA’s “BE” symbol to indicate that the food is bioengineered; 3) printing a QR code on the food label and 4) giving consumers the opportunity to text the manufacturer for more information.
Furthermore, consumers shouldn’t be worried about “bioengineered foods”.
“The movement is all-encompassingly confusing food safety advocates groups.” The Washington Post reports. The National Academy of Sciences and Food and Drug Administration have determined that eating bioengineered foods does not pose a risk to health.
NPR notes that critics believe the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rules will confuse consumers and make it more difficult to identify what is in any product. One advocacy group [the Center for Food Safety]To stop the new regulations being put into effect, he even sued USDA.”
The ongoing lawsuit is one of many complaints that manufacturers are not allowed to use the better-known term. GMOInstead of bioengineered. It is also concerned about the possible exclusion of bioengineered food ingredients from many meals.
According to the USDA, bioengineered foods are “foods that contain genetic material modified by humans.” In vitroThe modification cannot be achieved through traditional breeding, or in the wild. It states that foods made from genetically modified materials and not visible in final products are not considered bioengineered food.
The bottom line: Voluntary labeling of non-GMO products was working, providing consumers who—for whatever reason—wanted to know that sort of thing with the information they desired and allowing manufacturers who wanted to use non-GMO status as a marketing tool to do so. However, since the federal government took over the entire process, it has been more expensive and complicated with no apparent consumer benefits.
FREE MINDS
Paranoia and hypervigilance about smartphones, attention spans.Matthew Sweet is a Journalist who explores the conundrums and logic of some of the examples. Stolen FocusJohann Hari’s new book, “The Declining Attention spans of Human Beings,” is now available. The entire thread can be read on Twitter. here.) Hari offers an example. She cites the study “Smartphones and Distraction” and draws serious conclusions.
The study was not rigorous, but it also “was not peer-reviewed” by Sweet. points outHari leaves out important information regarding how the study was conducted.These messages were relayed by experimenters to distract subjects, who told them they contained valuable information about the test.” Sweet points out. “They had to answer. So it tells you very little – nothing, I would suggest – about the ordinary seductions of the smartphone.”
Johann Hari has this to say? No. This research, however, suggests that we species, yes our species, is in danger. It is losing between 20 and 30% of its brainpower due to the use of mobile phones. This is a fair assertion. No. It’d be cherry-picking, exaggeration.
— Matthew Sweet (@DrMatthewSweet) January 6, 2022
FREE MARKETS
Small business start-ups are thriving.Now we are in year three of COVID-19’s pandemic. The U.S. economic situation is still difficult due to high inflation and supply chain problems, as well as persistently low job numbers. “However, the unexpected economic shining spot has been small business creation since the beginning of this pandemic,” says a spokesperson. There are reasonsFiona Harrigan, a Fiona Harrigan.
The average number of new business applications filed each month in 2021 was 452,000, excluding December data which has yet to be released by the U.S. Census Bureau. It’s an impressive increase over 2019, where the average monthly filing rate was 293,000. The numbers fell in March 2020, and then rose again in April 2020. In July 2020 they reached over 550,000 and remained above 2019 levels until the end.
Because new businesses are more likely to hire workers, the 2021 data looks especially promising. Between January 2021 and the close of Q3, more applications were submitted to create businesses that are likely to hire employees than in any previous period.
QUICK HITS
• On this day in 2015, terrorists killed 12 people in an attack on the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo. See There are reasonsYou can find the complete coverage of this topic here.
• Chicago schools are still closed, as the city’s leadership and teachers union fight over in-person learning.
• A judge this week ruled that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott isn’t authorized to prohibit local governments within the state from adopting their own mask mandates.
• Hormonal birth control is now available without a prescription in Illinois. “This legislation covers self-administered hormonal contraceptive methods — birth control pills, skin patches, and vaginal rings — which were previously available only with a prescription from a physician,” notes Chicago magazine.
• Perpetually truth-challenged and sex work–obsessed pundit Nicholas Kristof can’t run for governor of Oregon because he hasn’t lived in the state long enough, officials say. The Secretary of State Shemia Fagaan announced Thursday that Kristof’s application to run for the office had been rejected. He does not have the three-year residency requirement. This decision will likely only be the beginning of a legal battle that will ultimately end in the courtroom.
• Encrypted messaging app Signal’s crypto payments feature has gone global.
• “Add swim diapers to the list of issues that can get turned into a federal case,” writes Ron Hurtibise in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. A Florida family has filed a federal lawsuit against their condo board, claiming that a rule prohibits children from swimming in the pool with swim diapers while they are wearing them is illegal.
• “The feminist rejection of diet culture can, at times, shift to a rejection of the whole concept of health itself, or at least of the idea that it’s probably a good thing to pursue health,” points out feminist author Jill Filipovic, in a Substack post calling for both a rejection of unhealthy dieting obsessions but also an understanding that “it does actually matter what we eat — to ourselves, to our bodies, to our souls, to our cultures, and to our planet.”