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Posted on Oct 16, 2017 in Audio, Editorial, Featured, Your Texas Agriculture Minute

YOUR TEXAS AGRICULTURE MINUTE

YOUR TEXAS AGRICULTURE MINUTE

 

Nonsense marketing: A consequence of the Information Age

By Gene Hall

I buy GMO-free rice. It says so right on the lid. What does it mean? As it turns out, absolutely nothing. There is no genetically enhanced rice product on the market—not one.

There is a non-profit biotech research effort to add Vitamin A to rice. A good idea. It would save thousands of third-world children from blindness and death. But it’s a long way from U.S. supermarkets.

Non-GMO labels on tomatoes? There hasn’t been a GMO tomato on the market in 25 years. You can buy non-GMO water and salt. Neither has any genes to alter.

There are 10 approved GMO crops: corn, cotton, soybeans, potatoes, squash, papaya, canola, alfalfa, sugar beets and apples. Claims for any other crop are misleading.

The food company Mann Packing has recently backed away from GMO-free labels on lettuce. Perhaps because all lettuce is GMO-free. They may follow suit with other products. Honesty in marketing? Maybe it will catch on.

The preceding commentary is brought to you by Texas Farm Bureau, the “Voice of Texas Agriculture.” Called “Your Texas Agriculture Minute,” TFB will issue thought-provoking editorials each week—via print and audio—to spark understanding of agriculture in the Lone Star State and its impact on each and every Texan.

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