Academy Award-winning actress and lifestyle guru Gwyneth Paltrow stepped away from her Goop desk last week to join lawmakers and healthy food advocates in the nation’s capital in an effort to support mandatory labeling of foods that contain genetically modified ingredients.
“I’m not here as an expert,” Paltrow said. “I’m here as a mother, an American mother, that honestly believes I have the right to know what’s in the food I feed my family.”
Paltrow came out to support the Just Label It campaign, which also released a video PSA this week that featured several other “celebrity moms” speaking out for GMO labeling and calling for consumers to sign the group’s latest petition.
Paltrow said the petition had garnered 200,000 signatures in just six days. “We would love to have, by the time the House comes back in September, a half million signatures,” she said.
“Congress has long recognized that Americans should be given basic information about their food and trusted to make the right choices for their families,” the petition said. “We urge you to honor this longstanding tradition and reject H.R. 1599 [the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act better known as the Deny Americans Right to Know Act].”
H.R. 1599 was passed by the House and heads to the Senate in the fall. If passed, it would prevent states from passing GMO labeling bills and would protect the interests of big food manufacturers and the biotech industry.
“Senate Democrats are instead pushing [CA Senator Barbara Boxer’s] bill, the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act, which would require labels for all foods produced using genetically engineering ingredients and prohibit manufacturers from labeling genetically modified foods as natural,” reports The Hill.
Several states have recently passed GMO labeling bills, the most notable in Vermont, which is set to go into effect next year.
This article was originally published on www.NaturallySavvy.com
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