To counter what it says are false claims and allegations about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by the Non-GMO Project butterfly campaign, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) filed a citizen petition to the commissioner of food and drugs calling on the Food & Drug Administration to issue a regulation prohibiting use of the term “Non-GMO” on consumer foods and goods and requiring distributors to omit any “Non-GMO” term or claims on their labeling.

“The ‘Non-GMO’ Project butterfly campaign deceives consumers through false and misleading claims about foods, food ingredients and their health and safety characteristics,” said ITIF senior fellow Val Giddings, who is leading the petition. “The campaign constitutes misbranding under the law, and the FDA should act in the best interest of consumers and protect them, as the law demands, against the confusion spread by these false claims.”

According to the citizen petition, the Non-GMO Project presumes the existence of a class of foods -- “GMO” -- that is arbitrary, has no basis in science and is intrinsically misleading.

The citizen petition highlights the following statements of grounds:

“The Non-GMO Project falsely implies that what happens randomly in nature is safer than what humans do deliberately with care and foresight. Consumers deserve the truth about their food, and whether or not it has been bioengineered or otherwise improved by humans says absolutely nothing about the safety of the resulting product,” Giddings said.

“It is time for FDA to put an end to this fraudulent scheme and protect consumers from misleading and deceptive food labels at the law requires,” the petition concluded.