Where’s the informed consent? I don’t want to be a guinea pig any longer. Genetically engineered foods have made their way onto our grocery store shelves without our knowledge or consent, and the health impacts of these foods are largely untested. When we shop for food, we have no way of knowing whether the food we’re buying came from the land or from a lab. I don’t remember signing up for this science experiment, and I would like the opportunity to make an informed choice about the food that I’m buying for my family and myself.

Labeling genetically engineered foods is a simple and common sense step towards regaining a voice in our food system, and here in Washington we have the opportunity to be the first state to require GE food labeling, thanks to the recent qualification of initiative I-522, the “People’s Right to Know” initiative. If food is an internationally recognized human right, isn’t the right to know what’s in our food an equally important right to defend?

Katie Siegner