Continued calls for better food labeling to reflect GMOs

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – You should be able to choose whether you buy genetically-modified foods at the grocery store.

That’s the message from a growing grassroots movement against a big industry name that has been fighting mandatory labeling.

On the weekend, hundreds of people protested in Vancouver against seed-giant Monsanto. They were joining rallies around the world with people worried about the potential health dangers of eating genetically-modified food.

Locally, rally co-organizer Christen Traversy calls for consumer choice.

“We want GMO labeling,” she explains. “Out of all the industrialized countries in the world, Canada and the US are the only countries that do not GMO label.”

“We have a right to know what we’re eating,” Traversy adds. “There are a lot of health effects that are caused by eating genetically-modified organisms such as cancer and obesity.”

Concern is growing online with people sharing a boycott list of dozens of common food producers.

Monsanto insists its practices are safe but opposes mandatory labeling because it believes consumers would be confused, or would consider it some type of warning.  It says food distributors are the best ones to make labeling decisions, not government regulators.

Health Canada says it has established a clear and stringent process for evaluating the safety, but adds after 12 years of study there has been no evidence that consuming GMOs is less safe than traditional foods.  The agency encourages voluntary labeling.

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