(NaturalNews) The world's largest food corporations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars^[1] (some of it illegally^[2]) to avoid being required to label the genetically engineered^[3] (GMOs) ingredients in their products. (Story by Katherine Paul and Ronnie Cummins, republished from EcoWatch.com.)

But with the July 1 deadline for complying with Vermont's GMO labeling law on the horizon, a handful of the largest multinational food corporations have announced^[4] they will now label GMOs—not solely because they will be forced to, but because as General Mills claims,^[5] they believe "you should know what's in your food and how we make ours."

Have consumers won the GMO labeling battle?^[6] Have these food companies that so fiercely fought to keep labels off their products really split with the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the multi-billion-dollar lobbying group that is still trying to overturn^[7] Vermont's law in the courts, and preempt it in Congress?

To be sure, consumer pressure has had an impact on brands' decisions to label. We should celebrate that. But before we break out the champagne, it's worth noting that not all of the food companies that announced plans to label have taken a strong position on labeling. Equally important, four out of the five companies announced plans to label after a Senate bill^[8] to preempt Vermont's labeling law failed,^[9] but before the Senate has a chance to come back^[10] with an amended version of the bill after Congress returns on April 4 from Easter recess.



Is there something more to these recent announcements than just the need to comply with Vermont's law? As in, a strategy to lull consumers into complacency, while at the same time forcing Congress to give food companies what they've wanted all along—a free pass on labeling?

It's also worth noting that all of the companies that have revealed plans to label adamantly defend the "safety" of GMOs—without once mentioning the fact that the vast majority of GMO crops, from which GMO food ingredients are derived, are sprayed with glyphosate, classified^[11] last year by the World Health Organization as "a probable human carcinogen." Clearly, we have a long way to go before food corporations acknowledge the devastating consequences of the GMO monoculture model on the environment, human health and global warming.

Read more at EcoWatch.com.

Sources:

[1] OrganicConsumers.org
[2] SeattlePi.com
[3] EcoWatch.com
[4] EcoWatch.com
[5] Blog.GeneralMills.com
[6] EcoWatch.com
[7] Reuters.com
[8] EcoWatch.com
[9] OrganicConsumers.org
[10] Salsa3.SalsaLabs.com
[11] TheLancet.com

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