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In his "Straight Poop" Green Chain column, Norm Benson uses a strange urban legend having nothing to do with labeling to confuse readers about the need to label GE food.

A basic rule of economics is that if buyers can't obtain complete and truthful information, it's not really a competitive free market. Neither big corporations nor the government can tell us that we aren't smart enough to be told what we're buying.

The "inconvenient truth" is that genetic engineering (GE) is not the same as selective breeding or natural cross-pollination. It's a new and dangerous technology that's causing health and environmental problems. Unlabeled GE food is banned in most countries where the government has to pay for people's health care - just think about the implications of that.

The policies governing the release of GE crops into our food supply were written 20 years ago when many scientists still thought that one gene caused each genetic trait, a hypothesis that was disproved by the Human Genome Project. They thought 90 percent of our DNA was "junk DNA" that had no function.

Geneticists still know little about what is now called non-coding DNA, but it does perform essential functions such as regulation of protein-coding sequences. Guess it's true - God doesn't make junk.

So why would anyone think it's a good idea to shoot genes into these complex molecules and then put them into our food when we don't even know what they do? Benson's article ignores the biotech industry's reckless disregard for scientific advances and the rush to profit regardless of the risks.

Incidentally, the proposed law doesn't require warnings on GE food. The ingredients will simply include the words "genetically modified" when the soy, corn, sugar or canola actually are genetically modified.

Saying that this implies a warning or claim that the food is unnatural is a red herring.

Benson's comparison to religious dietary restrictions, specifically Kosher and "Sharia" (actually Halal is the proper term) and calling avoidance of GMOs a "lifestyle" choice are also distractions from the real issue - our right to choose.

Americans were assured that Bt toxin from GE corn would not survive digestion and end up elsewhere in our bodies.

Yet we can learn from a Canadian study that the toxic Bt protein Cry1Ab was not destroyed by digestion and wound up in the blood serum of 93 percent of pregnant women tested, 80 percent of the umbilical blood samples and in the blood of 67 percent of non-pregnant women.

Other studies are linking "safe" Roundup used on GE crops with birth defects, infertility and damage to both soil and the nutritional value of contaminated food.

Who believes these biotech companies and the apologists anymore?

Biotech public relations is designed to confuse us by inserting all sorts of unrelated issues into the argument about labeling genetically modified foods.

Prepare to hear a lot of more of the same. Meanwhile GE products continue to be sold to unwitting consumers. It's time for that to change. It's time to put our right to know above profits.