Senator from Vermont and Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been standing up for sustainable farming and non-GMO food. This piece isn’t meant to prop Sanders up on a pedestal but rather is meant to be a reminder to consider how your favorite presidential candidate will vote on GMOs once elected.
Sanders helped to pass legislation that protects family-owned farms, not huge Agrichemical farms that monocrop our food sovereignty into oblivion with the Farm Bill in 2014. He also, on the surface, supports allowing states to require labels on foods containing “genetically modified organisms” (GMOs) based on the consumer’s right-to-know, though he does not believe that GMOs are necessarily bad. At least he champions our right to know what we are eating.
“Unlike people in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Brazil, China, Russia, New Zealand and other countries where labels are required, Americans don’t know if the food they eat has been genetically modified. People have a right to know what they are eating,” says Bernie Sanders, US Presidential Candidate.
He continues:
“I think all over this country, people want to know the quality of the food they’re eating and what they’re giving to their kids is good quality. We just don’t know all that much about genetically modified food. . .
Not a huge friend or fan of Monsanto, he also has comments about one of the world’s most hated companies:
“Monsanto and other companies are saying states can’t do it [label GMOs]. It is a federal prerogative. My amendment said if California, Vermont, Connecticut, other states want to go forward, they should have that right.”
Bernie Sanders was interviewed two years ago by CNN – you can see his stance on GMOs here:
He also made comments before the U.S House about Monsanto as early as 1998. You can see him talk about America’s family farms, here: