It’s no question that GMOs are one of the most debated subjects in recent years. Whether you’re for or against them, there’s one thing that effects all consumers: labelling. As GMOs become more and more mainstream, more people want to know if their food is genetically modified. But would you believe that nearly 70% of all food in America has genetically modified components? There’s a good chance that you’ve eaten GMO recently without even realizing it – and most of these foods don’t tell you that they’re genetically modified. I believe that at this point, it’s redundant to label foods as GMO – similar to labelling chicken as hormone free (because all chicken has to be hormone free) or calling corn chips gluten-free (as corn doesn’t have gluten in it). It’s practically a given that, in the United States, most of your food is genetically modified to some extent.

Not to mention, changing labels on a large scale isn’t cheap. Especially since right now it’s a state’s decision on whether to force GMO products to be labelled. For example, last year Vermont was the first to make this ruling. So food manufacturers and companies that sell to other states as well as Vermont have to make a decision – either create new labels to be specifically printed on their products shipped to Vermont separate from the labels they put on products sent to everywhere else, or change all of their labels to exhibit their use of GMOs. Both of which aren’t great options: changing only a portion of your labels proves to be expensive, and a large majority of people in the US are weary of buying foods labelled with use of GMOs which would lead to a decrease in sales.

Overall it is a complex issue that many people disagree on – regardless of whether or not they know that there’s a good chance they’re eating GMO products without even realizing it.