In the USA, where genetically modified crops are widely grown, there is fierce political debate over labelling. Interest groups who believe products containing GM material should be labelled last month called on processors and retailers not to stock agribusiness giant Monsanto’s latest modified sweet corn.  image expired

A coalition of environmental, food safety and small-farm organisations are petitioning US food retailers and processors to ban the biotech corn. The coalition’s campaign has reportedly been a successful one; it claims over 264,000 petition signatures from consumers opposed to the unlabelled corn and has said General Mills and Trader Joe's both indicated that they will not be using the biotech sweet corn in their products.

Monsanto spokesperson Danielle Stuart expressed surprise at the controversy surrounding the corn. She said, "The safety and benefits of biotech sweet corn products -- as well as other biotech crops -- is well established."

Nevertheless, the coalition, which includes the Centre for Environmental Health, the Centre for Food Safety, and Food & Water Watch, said it believes GM crops may pose environmental and health problems, including unknown long-term health effects.

Although many farming organisations have stated GM technology is an imperative for achieving global food security, GM opponents vehemently oppose this view; critics have expressed reservations at allowing the world’s staple crops to become the intellectual property of private corporations and claim herbicide-resistant crops have led to a rise in "super weeds", which are also resistant to herbicides, and could threaten crop production.

Before his election as president, Barack Obama pledged to label GM foods; in the USA an estimated 80 per cent of processed foods contain GM ingredients. Obama pledged to label the foods, as "Americans should know what they're buying", however, since entering office, he has not committed to labelling.

US-based Food Democracy Now, which has campaigned for GMO labelling, claims US agribusinesses have lobbied against labelling as they fear consumer mistrust of GM would lead to a drop in sales were the labels introduced.