The March Against Monsanto took place across the world Saturday. Dozens showed up in downtown Hartford rallying in support of labels for genetically modified organisms.
With homemade signs that spoke from their hearts protesters gathered to express their anger with companies like Monsanto that produce GMOs. They also called attention to the dangers to our health, which they say is at risk because of GMOs
“I believe that right now, as consumers, we should be able to choose what we put into our bodies, and right now we don’t have that choice,” said Ann Palmer.
“We want to have good healthy food, and we want our GMOs labeled so that we know we have a choice to pick up what kind of food we want,” said Amy Sobel.
Earlier this week the Connecticut Senate passed a bill 35 to 1 requiring all food containing GMOs to be labeled. It went to the House, but representatives amended their own bill, which, supporters of labeling GMOs say it almost guarantees those labels will never be found in the state.
“As Americans we should have that right to look at a box of cereal and to know what the sodium level is and we should know what the cholesterol level is and we should be able to know if it’s a GMO,” said Dr. John Pagnani.
Not everybody agrees that foods need to have a GMO label.
“In this sense the GMO bill would really misrepresent the GMO foods and imply that there’s … something harmful,” said Paul Pescatello, who sits on the board for CURE Connecticut. He said genetically modified organisms increase crop yield and bring down the cost of food.
Still, there are many who opposed genetically modified foods and Saturdays’s rally was just another step in their vision to see those labels in the supermarkets.