I think that the problem of fear of GMO food can be handled at teh private level.
Have you heard of Mrs Gooch’s supermarkets? They got bought up by Whole Foods. But in the beginning, they’d guarantee certain things about the stuff they sold. No artificial colors, flavors, unless it was labeled as such. They’d run gas chromatography tests on each lot of produce and POST THE RESULTS! at the food bin! They did lots of stuff like that and they passed the costs on. Naturally the food was more expensive because they paid for test labs to run tests on things. They were moderately successful, imo, but never really took off. Paying 50% more for a kiwi because you know the pesticide level was only attractive to a limited set.
So for GMO food, a company can pay for genetic testing of all ingredients, certify each production lot, post the results online tied to a QR code on the package, and pass the costs on to the consumer. So GMO food will be available to anyone who wants it, with no laws involved. You could have an entire grocery store chain based on the concept, like Gooch’s, and all those who fear GMO, irradiated, pesticide residue, and anything else would be satisfied. Without a government forcing stuff on us.
Well, there are a couple problems here.
You mention “the fear of GMO food...”...
Fear can be one thing, or it can be called flat out hysteria. I consider the whole (or 99%) of the current Gluten thing to be hysteria.
From what I’ve read, if someone has gluten sensitivities and they eat gluten products, THEY KNOW IT REAL SOON!
So if you see a blog where someone writes “I went gluten free and after 2 months I feel so much better” they are literally deceiving themselves, their diet may have been a problem, but it was not gluten.
And look. As far as GMO’s go, knowing that a food is or might be GMO tells you almost nothing.
What does that mean? Glow in the dark Mac’n Cheese?
Higher protein content? More drought resistant plants?
These things are probably even if not beneficial probably innocuous.
BUT!!!!
If the food is one that has had BT genes inserted, I WANT TO KNOW!
If they have been genetically tweaked to be “Round-Up Ready” I WANT TO KNOW!
I guess I am in favor of putting the info out there and letting the market decide rather than never telling your consumers “Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!”