Senate Passes the Dreaded GMO Labeling Bill

The Senate has passed a GMO labeling bill that would allow food companies to print a QR scan code, phone number, or website that consumers can scan/call/look up to find GMO ingredient information, rather than have a clear label that states “this product contains genetically-modified ingredients”. If this bill becomes law, the Vermont GMO labeling law will be struck down, setting activists and pro-labeling politicians back years of hard work. Large food companies have used their deep pockets to sway Senators to vote in their favor, citing the high costs of changing labels as the main issue. Seems to us at iEat Green that if food companies were worried about costs, they wouldn’t have all this money to bribe our elected officials. The Organic Trade Association (OTA) has thrown their support behind this horrible bill, which is disappointing and eye-opening. The OTA said the Senate was bound to pass a labeling bill to pre-empt Vermont’s law. However, that’s not a good enough reason to accept such a limiting bill – states will not have the right to require GMO labeling if this bill becomes law. Over 90% of the American public wants GMOs to be labeled, the OTA and elected officials should be concerned about our demands, not corporations. As the picture in the article states, a labeling law without a label is a sham.

Man Feeds Himself For Free All Year 

William Reid has committed to feeding himself solely by dumpster diving for his food. William stopped buying food from grocery stores in 2014 and has never gotten sick from eating discarded food. This is because most of the food grocery stores throw out is still perfectly edible, they’re just making room for new shipments.  40% of food in the U.S. goes uneaten, and William has decided to show people that it’s completely viable for people to not just get by on dumpster food, but thrive. There is such a large population of people in the U.S. who don’t have money for food and go hungry most days. William is hoping to show people where the food waste is generated, and that we need to implement systems to prevent all this edible food from going to landfills. He said finding food was so easy, he decided to go vegan not for the values, but to challenge himself and his dumpster diving skills. He’s still eating like a king, even with his new diet. William is filming a documentary that will be released in 2017, and we cannot wait to see it!

Congress Passes the Global Food Security Act

Last week, Congress passed the Global Food Security Act, which will benefit women, children, and smallholder farmers in a global hunger relief effort. The great news about this act is that it requires annual reports on the effectiveness of the relief efforts, and long-term plans for ending reliance on food aid. The main way the bill plans to do this is increasing the “productivity, incomes, and livelihoods of small-scale producers and creating an environment for agricultural growth and investment”. Research shows that when women in poverty are given opportunities such as farming or small businesses, they are likely to be able to take care of their family, get out of poverty, and help improve their community. Giving aid to female farmers is killing two birds with one stone – helping the economic position of poor women and improving the food security of poor communities. We’re happy to see some accountability and long term planning come to global food aid, and can’t wait to see how female farmers around the world improve their communities.