Frankenfood with a side order of Melamine

(Stolen from Fiat Lux)

Steve Bates of The Yellow Doggerel Democrat has a very potent post about Frankenfoods. He ends it with these questions:

Putting aside for a moment (but only a moment) the potential long-term catastrophe, what about us as individuals? Should a person in a free society at least have the opportunity to know what she is eating, whether chemical pesticides and fertilizers were used in its production, and most especially whether its genes have been tampered with? The EU seems to think so. The US? not so much. Not only has the USDA introduced proposed changes to the definition of "organic," but a provision has been inserted in the farm bill that would prohibit state and local governments from imposing additional safety and labeling requirements on foods, beyond those approved by the Secretary of Agriculture. If these foods are so manifestly safe, why are both the producers and our corporatocracy federal government so reluctant to tell us what we are eating, or allow us to impose restrictions on it?