Expiration dates, sell-by dates, best if used by dates… Figuring out how long food is safe to eat is a confusing mess to the majority of Americans. But after 40 years of sniffing items in your fridge and Googling whether you can eat eggs that are a week past the date printed on the carton, the grocery industry is stepping in to clarify things. [1]
The list seems to grow daily. The multinational ConAgra now joins General Mills, Mars, and Kellogg’s as a company which will label its products if they contain genetically modified ingredients. With Vermont’s mandatory GM labeling bill going into effect this summer, this is a decision more companies will have to make, and soon.
Vermont is a little state, but it could force some enormous decisions. Will the Big Food corporations have to label GMO packages for Vermont, whose population is smaller than Brooklyn’s? They will if the Senate votes against the ‘DARK’ (‘Deny Americans the Right to Know’) Act (H.R. 1599) introduced in 2015 by Rep. Mike Pompeo.
A landmark case about the dirty-money and politics that go into keeping Big Food and Big Biotech afloat was just decided.
Judge Anne Hirsch awarded a summary judgment in a suit brought against the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association by Attorney General Bob Ferguson, finding the GMA guilty of a money laundering scheme that shielded members’ identities as they helped to defeat Washington’s 2013 GMO labeling ballot initiative, I-522, with their donations.
Imagine strolling down your grocery store’s aisles, and you pick up a food that has been packaged with some deceptive labeling that says it is ‘all natural’ or ‘made with wholesome ingredients.’ You want to purchase only healthy, non-GMO food, along with countless others. But the labeling is unclear. This is exactly what the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association (GMA) wants consumers to feel – lost.
Ecological economists such as Herman Daly write that the more full the world becomes, the higher are the social or external costs of production.
Social or external costs are costs of production that are not captured in the price of the products. For example, dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico that result from chemicals used in agriculture are not included as costs in agricultural production. The price of food does not include the damage to the Gulf.
