The GMO Fear Train Has Left the Station

For GMO opponents, it's been a good news/bad news week. The good news: Vermont became the first state to mandate the labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients. (More about that in a minute.) The bad news: New York Times food writer Mark Bittman, a darling of the food movement, wrote a column that called on his compadres to stop obsessing about GMOs, particularly the labeling issue, which "plays on irrational fears." The battle over GMOs, Bittman said, was not important to the larger goal of sustainable agriculture. What's more, "the technology [involving genetically modified foods] itself has not been found to be harmful," he wrote, and its "underlying science could well be useful." How do you suppose this went over in organic food co-ops across the United States, where GMOs are about as welcome as disposable plastic bags?