[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14310]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS

  (Mr. KUCINICH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, in 1992, the Food and Drug Administration 
decided that genetically modified organisms were the functional 
equivalent of conventional foods.
  They arrived at this decision without testing GMOs for allergenicity, 
toxicity, antibiotic resistance, and functional characteristics. As a 
result, hundreds of millions of acres of GMO crops were planted in 
America without the knowledge or consent of the American people, no 
safety testing, no long-term health studies.
  The FDA has received over a million comments from citizens demanding 
labeling of GMOs. Ninety percent of Americans agree.
  Why no labeling? I'll give you one reason. The influence and the 
corruption of the political process by Monsanto. Monsanto has been a 
prime mover in GMO technology, a multimillion dollar GMO lobby here and 
a major political contributor. There is a chance that Monsanto's grip 
will be broken in California, where a GMO labeling initiative is on the 
ballot. Here in Congress my legislation, H.R. 3553, will provide for a 
national labeling bill.
  Americans have a right to know if their food is genetically 
engineered. It's time for labeling. It's time for people to know how 
their food is being produced.

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