Hundreds Rally Against Agricultural Biotech Company On Independence Mall
By Molly Daly
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Protests were held around the country and the world Saturday against agribusiness giant Monsanto to call attention to health and environmental concerns about genetically engineered food.
"I'm here today because the people of Pennsylvania deserve the opportunity to know what's int their food, to know what they're feeding their family," State Senator Daylin Leach said at the rally on Independence Mall in Philadelphia.
Leach has introduced a bill requiring the labeling of food that contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs). They're already in the food supply, but it's not yet known if or how they'll affect people's health.
Leach says there's a history of seemingly benign products that came back to bite us.
"DDTs, PCBs, Agent Orange -- all of these things were called safe at one time, and turned out not to be," he said
But Monsanto and food manufacturers oppose mandatory labeling, which Leach says is unfair to the consumer:
"Rather than just trust industry, I want to wait and see how the science plays out, and I want want to know what GMOs are in my food, pending that, so I can make a decision whether I want to make the decision whether to feed that to my children or not."
