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Perhaps, the better question is why are not are foods labeled if they are genetically modified? After all, we have safety controls and consumer protection regulations on a wide variety of institutions from automobiles and airlines to work place safety and health care.

Food is pretty basic and plays a major role in public health, an important national consideration when examining a national health care program. GM foods are relatively new to the market and there is a lack of long range data which would support the overall benefits of taking the genetic material from one organism and forging it with the material of another organism.

There are many unknowns and a growing concern among many consumer, environmental, religious and health organizations about the entire GM food industry. It is as if the foods have secretly been forced on the American consumer. While there is a clear lack of hard evidence, some estimates are that seventy percent of the food on the supermarket shelf contain genetically engineered foods, those foods can range from soda pop and tomato sauce to crackers, soy and corn products.

The FDA should mandate proper and accurate labeling of all food products. We need to examine and test throughly our scientific and technological advances; the results need to be made public. Freedom of information is critical in a democracy. Consumers should know the spaghetti sauce was made from a tomato crossed with the genes of a flounder.

Despite the growing concerns and the lack of FDA oversight, the US Congress has remained silent. No action, whatsoever, has been taken by the people's representatives. There has been a strange and disturbing silence about the regulation and concerns over biotechnology on the kitchen table.

American shoppers do read labels; watch any supermarket aisle. People are concerned about their food safety and yet the government and regulatory agencies refuse to act for the public good. The only choice for shoppers is to purchase food products from certified organic growers or well known local, based family farms.

Family and organic farms remain at risk from contamination under the current system. GM crops can and will cross-pollinate with heirloom food crops and our native plants. There are definite environmental risks in the planting of artificially bred crops. It is not far fetched to be concerned about the extinction of some native plants and vegetables due to cross pollination.

And even more serious questions arise in this twist of the Law of Unintended Consequences
What happens to our wildlife? What if some strange and deadly organism develops from the cross pollination? What is the effect on our natural world? There appears to be very little disagreement that GM crops can not be contained in test plots; these plants will spread by the wind, insect activity, human error. They can not be contained in isolation.

Our economy is global; we do not live in an isolated vacuum. The EU and other nations are much more concerned about the adverse effects of GM foods and continue to ban food crops which test positive for GM contamination.

For American agriculture, GM foods loom as the economic, environmental and health concern of the next several decades. The FDA and Congress should step forward and begin to address the consequences of GM food production and the impact on our environment and economy.

More importantly, the FDA and Congress should address the issue if GM foods are ultimately poisoning fellow Americans. Labeling, research and regulation needs to begin in the immediate future.

Learn more about this author, Greg Spinks.
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