The editorial page of The New York Times - one of the most influential in the country - says there is no reason to require mandatory labeling of food products with genetically engineered ingredients. 

“There is no reliable evidence that genetically modified foods now on the market pose any risk to consumers,” the paper pointed out in an editorial published Friday (March 15, 2013) and available here: http://nyti.ms/ZU7FQz. “The Food and Drug Administration says it has no basis for concluding that foods developed by bioengineering techniques present different or greater safety concerns than foods developed by traditional plant breeding.”

The Times agreed that consumers have a right to know what is in their food, but noted:

“Consumers can already find products free of genetically engineered ingredients, with labels voluntarily placed by the manufacturers,” “For those who want to avoid such ingredients, the surest way is to buy products certified as ‘organic’ under federal standards. They contain no genetically engineered ingredients, or at most inadvertent trace amounts.” Read more.