Vermont was the first in the United States to introduce mandatory labeling GMOs

Vermont was the first of the US states to adopt a law that obliges manufacturers to label the packaging of food if they contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The signature under the relevant document was put on Thursday by the state governor Peter Shamlin.

"Vermont residents have the right to know what is contained in the products that they buy," Shamlin said. The law must enter into force on July 1, 2016. As expected, it will be tried to block large agro-industrial companies through the court, ITAR-TASS notes.

Supporters of mandatory labeling of GMOs containing products claim that there is no scientific evidence that they are harmless. According to them, consumers have the right to know whether GMOs are used in the product in order to decide for themselves whether to buy it or not.

Against the marking, primarily agro -industrial and biotechnological corporations are opposed - such as Monsanto and Dow Chemical. They assure that there is simply no need for it, since the GMO production is completely safe, and the marking will lead to a significant increase in food.

They rest on the benefits of using modern technologies: “The use of genetically modified grains allowed farmers to receive more crops in a smaller territory using a smaller number of pesticides and water,” says Caitlin Enrait, an executive vice president of the biotechnological industry that unites large companies of the industry. According to her, with the introduction of mandatory marking, the costs of the family for food will increase by an average of $ 400 a year.

Laws on mandatory labeling containing GMOs are adopted in more than 60 countries. In Russia and Europe, manufacturers are required to label the packaging of food if the content of genetically modified components in them exceeds 0.9%.

The United States is the world's largest manufacturer of GMO products. Currently, the issue of mandatory labeling products with GMOs is considered in more than 20 US states.