Celebrity chef Tom Colicchio urges NY to embrace GMO labeling

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…All this explains the crippling confusion that now confronts too many food consumers every time they enter the grocery store. We can do better — and when it comes to the powerful technology behind genetically modified foods, we must.

Advances in agricultural biotechnology have led to a dramatic and rapid expansion in the development and cultivation of genetically modified crops on American farmland. Approximately 90% of the corn, soybean, alfalfa, sugar beets and cotton being grown on U.S. farm acres are now GMO varieties.

Virtually all GMO crops on the market today have been engineered to be pest-resistant (by inserting bacteria DNA that turns the plant into a pesticide factory), herbicide-tolerant (by inserting bacteria DNA that makes them able to survive repeated sprayings with toxic weed-killers such as Roundup) or both.

This rapid adoption of GMO agriculture has outpaced the scientific community’s understanding of its impacts on human health and the environment, and has left the public in the dark. We’re in the dark because the chemical companies that make the seeds and the food companies that use GMOs have fought hard against any labeling regulations.