WA Initiative 522: GMO Food Labeling

This Washington state initiative requires foods that are themselves GMO to be labeled as such. Exempt are foods containing 0.9% or less of potentially GMO ingredients.

The system for enforcing these restrictions requires farmers to track the origin of ingredients more carefully. It also requires farmers to have special labeling requirements for WA that differ from the rest of the United States.

Summary:

• Good for consumer health and choice.
• Bad for farm companies and independent farmers since they will have to adapt to new regulation.
  • However the labeled versions of their products may now be exported overseas, where GMO-labeling requirements are common in other first-world countries.
• Products that wish to avoid the “may contain GMOs” label will be more expensive to produce and therefore will cost more in supermarkets. The majority of products, which I assume are GMO, should remain unaffected.

Other notes:

• I do not appreciate the “No on 522” site not providing access to the original bill text, instead providing only their own summaries of the bill provisions.

Verdict:

• Yes for 522.

References:

• Full Text: http://yeson522.com/about/read/
• Pro: http://yeson522.com/
• Con: http://www.votenoon522.com/