by Frank Bergman, Slay News:
Democrats are fighting to keep insects hidden in food products to be consumed by the American general public.
In Minnesota, state Senate Democrats blocked an amendment that would have required foods containing insects to be labeled.
Republicans are arguing that insects should be listed in the ingredients of food products to inform consumers.
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However, for reasons that are not immediately clear, Democrats are pushing to keep bugs a hidden ingredient.
Last week, the Minnesota Senate passed S.F. 4225 – an omnibus agriculture policy bill.
The legislation was mostly related to taxes for farmers in the state.
However, before the bill was passed, Sen. Torrey Westrom (R-Alexandria) introduced a commonsense amendment for food labeling.
The amendment would require food to be properly labeled if it contains either insect products or artificial “cell-cultured” food like lab-grown meat.
In a statement about the move, Westrom said:
“This just sets forth that if there’s bugs in your food for protein, cricket flour, whatever it is, it needs to be labeled.
“The consumers need to know.
“If your meat is cell-cultured and grown in a petri dish, you also need to know.
“Consumers should have that knowledge as they shop in the stores.”
Republican colleague Sen. Jim Abeler echoed Westrom’s remarks.
Abeler argues that the amendment is a “no-brainer.”
“Let’s tell people what’s in their food that some people don’t even consider to be food,” he said.
“Just because there’s no money in the bill doesn’t mean we can’t establish a policy.”
However, the bill’s Democrat author Sen. Aric Putnam,(D-St. Cloud) shot down the proposal.
Putnam insists that, although “consumers should know what they are consuming,” the issue of labeling insect parts in products was a “future problem.”
He falsely claimed that insect-based “foods” and lab-grown “meats” are not available yet, and therefore, do not need to be addressed.
“Everybody wants to have consumer awareness of the food that they eat, but some of us want to do it in a thoughtful way,” he said.
