The Feed Your Mind Initiative was cooperatively launched by the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA), US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and US
the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help consumers better understand
food derived from genetic engineering, commonly known as genetically
modified organisms (GMOs).



GMOs have been available since the early 1990s and are now commonly present
in our food supply. Through genetic engineering, new plants with desirable
traits were developed over the past 20 years. These include plants that are
resistant to pests, diseases, and abiotic stresses, biofortified plants, and
those that do not brown or bruise easily. However, a lot of issues
surrounding GM technology led to a lot of misconceptions about it. Thus, the
Feed Your Mind initiative was launched to help people better understand the
products of genetic engineering and how they are made.



The FDA, EPA, and the USDA created a team of experts and agency leaders to
put together a steering committee and several technical working groups. They
also sought the stakeholders' opinions, went through scientific researchers
related to consumer understanding of GM foods, and conductive thorough
formative research. All these led to the build-up of the Feed Your Mind
initiative which is funded by the US Congress.



The initiative will be launched in phases. The first phase covered the
launching of the website and selected fact sheets, infographics, and videos.
These will be followed by the implementation of a supplementary science
curriculum intended for high schools, and the release of materials for
health professionals and consumers in the next two years.

Feed Your Mind aims to push agricultural innovation forward to provide safe,
abundant, and affordable safe supply while protecting the environment.



[www.fda.gov]
ative-launches-increase-consumer-understanding-genetically-engineered-foods