California voters reject food labeling requirement_美文

California voters reject food labeling requirement

Supporters of the measure included cooks from television food shows and even movie actors.

“What makes you think you have the right to know? I don’t think you have the right to know. Who do you think you are? Do you want the truth? You can’t handle the truth. Your puny little head would explode. They are just some things you shouldn’t know about, like what’s in your food. Why would you want to know what’s in your food? You shouldn’t know whether your food is genetically modified. It’s kind of none of your business.”

GMOs have been part of the food supply in the United States since nineteen eighty-seven, when genetically engineered tomatoes were first sold. Genetic engineering is the technology of changing the genes of living things. Scientists use special technologies to place genetic material from one species into another.

Some food crops now contain genes from other plants or even genes from fish or animals. Now almost all cooking oils include GMOs. One expert estimates that about seventy percent of food sold in the United States contains one or more GMOs.

The United States is not among the more than sixty countries that require labels to identify whether a food has been genetically modified. Japan requires such labeling if more than five percent of a food or food product contains GMOs. In India, lawmakers are working on a plan that would require labeling for even smaller amounts of GMOs.