{"id":27941,"date":"2016-07-14T16:55:23","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T20:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=27941"},"modified":"2016-07-15T11:11:21","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T15:11:21","slug":"cheese-gmo-labels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cheese-gmo-labels\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheese’s Place in the GMO Label Conundrum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vermont governor Peter Shumlin made waves<\/a> in the food producing community in 2014 when he signed a bill into law that would require grocery products containing GMOs to be labeled as such. Responding to the Vermont Right to Know Coalition<\/a>, Shumlin\u2019s action stipulated that the state\u2019s attorney general would have two years to sort out the nuances of the new requirement: What qualifies as a GMO? How should the food actually be labeled? Where do animal products stand in this operation? And—most importantly—where does cheese<\/em> stand in all this?<\/p>\n

Rennet, the coagulating enzyme complex that traditionally makes cheese, well, cheese, used to be collected from calves\u2019 stomachs<\/a>. In 1990, a technique developed by scientists was approved to genetically engineer chymosin, the primary enzyme in rennet, without slaughtering calves. Cheese made with this chymosin, though, squeezes by without a GMO label<\/a>. Why?<\/p>\n

The answer is simple: The chymosin that results from this process is technically not<\/em> a GMO. The last step in the process is to \u201cpurify\u201d the chymosin, stripping away the extraneous cellular material, and what remains is simply a protein chemically identical to that found in the stomach of a calf. \u201cChymosin is not genetically modified,\u201d University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of food science John Lucey says. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be scientifically accurate to call the enzyme itself genetically modified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cheese\u2019s other debatable ingredient in label-regulating limbo is milk. Lawmakers have had to wrestle with the question of what exactly qualifies milk—or any animal byproduct, for that matter—as genetically modified. If the animal producing the milk eats a diet of GMO feed, does that leave its mark on the milk?<\/p>\n

The answer, according to Vermont\u2019s recently released guidance<\/a>, is no. The document states that the law exempts \u201call animal products—unless the animal, itself, is the product of genetic engineering\u2014including processed dairy products, unless the product requires labeling because of additional ingredients (e.g., ice cream produced with genetically engineered sugar).\u201d This comes as a relief to dairy farmers and grain farmers alike; a huge percentage of animal feed is made from GMO crops, which allow for higher yields and lower prices. If cheese carried a GMO label because of the grain that the cows ate before being milked, consumers might be deterred, and, consequently, dairy farmers might be forced to try to buy non-GMO feed, which is significantly more expensive than conventional GMO feed, which in turn affects their bottom line and, in the case of many small farmers, their very existence.<\/p>\n

Vermont\u2019s law, which has been hotly contested<\/a> because of this confusion surrounding the actual effects of GMOs and imagined ones, may lose its footing as quickly as it took effect now that both the House of Representatives and the Sentate have passed their own federal bill<\/a> to regulate GMO labels. If President Obama officially signs it into law, as the administration has indicated he will, the bill will be far less stringent than the rules that Vermont has in place. Under the federal regulation, companies will be required to disclose<\/em> the GMO ingredients in their products, but they do not have to actually list them on the package. They can, instead, include a QR code, phone number, or website to direct consumers to the information—an effort small-scale enough to escape consumers\u2019 notice or, worse, confuse them.<\/p>\n

Debate continues over whether GMOs are harmful or neutral—many believe that specifically labeling deters consumers unnecessarily and acts as a sort of scarlet letter, but as many are adamant that a full understanding of what\u2019s in food is a consumer\u2019s right. But, in any case, if cheese isn\u2019t considered a GMO under Vermont\u2019s thorough law, it likely won\u2019t carry a label if the federal law passes either.<\/p>\n

[This post has been updated to reflect that the House of Representatives has passed the GMO labeling law.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Feature Photo Credit: cdrin<\/a> | Shutterstock<\/a><\/small><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Vermont’s GMO labeling law gives cheese an exemption<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":27942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[875],"class_list":["post-27941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheese-bites"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCheese's Place in the GMO Label Conundrum - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cheese-gmo-labels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cheese's Place in the GMO Label Conundrum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why Vermont's GMO labeling law gives cheese an exemption\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cheese-gmo-labels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-14T20:55:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-07-15T15:11:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/shutterstock_110493029.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Caroline Fenn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Caroline Fenn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cheese-gmo-labels\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/cheese-gmo-labels\/\",\"name\":\"Cheese's Place in the GMO Label Conundrum - 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