"The bill makes it mandatory to label foods with GMO but the information will be contained in QR (Quick Response) codes, not written on the product’s label. Consumers will be forced to rely on a mobile service, an Internet connection and access to a smartphone to scan a QR code, call a 1-800 number, or visit a website if they want to know whether or not their food is genetically modified.
“What we have here is a civil rights issue that is along the digital divide,” the Center for Food Safety’s Executive Director Andrew Kimbrell, told the AFRO. “It’s a really dangerous and alarming precedent. All Americans that buy food for themselves or their families should have equal information so they can judge what’s right and healthy for their families.”
Kimbrell, along with others represented by his organization, plans to sue over what he called the discriminatory nature of the law, which he said only passed after big food companies pressured politicians to take multiple votes on the matter. only to be defeated in March of this year.
According to the studies completed by the Pew Research Center on smartphone usage in 2015, only “two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone.” This means that of the roughly 234 million people in the U.S. today, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, less than 100,000,000 will be left on the wrong side of technology, thus, limiting their ability to choose or refuse genetically engineered products."
New Labeling Law for Genetically Engineer Food Considered a Major Civil Rights Setback | Afro
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