datamuse
Yeah, organic is a lot more expensive, isn’t it? And yet many of the companies and organizations supporting this bill sell or support organic foods. I think that’s very interesting.
I disagree that this isn’t about science. This initiative contained spurious claims that frankly ARE bad science and that’s one reason I couldn’t support it.
VBD, one thing I’m hearing for why a lot of farmers didn’t support it is that having to even determine which products contained GMOs would have been hellaciously complicated. Supply chains are long, way longer and more complex than most people realize. I mean, the mill doesn’t care if the wheat or corn coming in to be processed is GMO free or not. Suppliers aren’t keeping track unless they are specifically providing GMO-free/organic product, because (this is where the science comes in) there’s no reason for them to do so. This is one reason why passing 522 may well have raised prices.
I-522 was FAR from “not quite perfect”. Saying that we shouldn’t make the perfect the enemy of the good presupposes that what we were looking at was good, and it wasn’t.
Personally I think labeling is pointless, but if you’re going to have it, have it be useful. And have it be a national guideline, not state by state. Even the laws that just passed in Maine and Connecticut only go into effect if neighboring states follow suit. Why? I’m betting because those states are so small, and their supply chains so intertwined, that otherwise it’ll be effectively impossible. (New Hampshire’s legislature is currently leaning against it.)