On Thursday, Congress passed a bill that requires food packaging to tell consumers if it was made with genetically modified ingredients.
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On Wednesday, the House voted 242-185 on a rules resolution that barred amendments to the bill, halting its return to the Senate for another vote.
Today Reverend Jesse Jackson urged President Obama to veto the GMO labeling bill that is now before the House, should it reach his desk.
She said the measure also lacks teeth for holding companies accountable if they violate the labeling requirements. Vermont’s law, the first in the nation, went into effect on July 1. Though regulators would not start enforcing the bill until 2017, several manufacturers had already removed their products from local store shelves, including Coca-Cola, which pulled some of its smaller product lines from the Vermont market.
“S. 764 ensures consumers have the access to product information without stigmatizing this safe, proven technology that America’s farmers value”.
Companies including ConAgra, Mars, Campbell’s, and Kellogg have adopted nationwide labeling, and Danone SA-the French food company better known as Dannon in the U.S.-announced on Thursday that it will do the same in the American market.
The proposed legislation will require most packaged food products to be affixed with a clear text label, a universal symbol, or a code that can be scanned with a smartphone. “I support a mandatory federal system for labeling and disclosing GMOs in food so that consumers across the country have consistent access to information no matter what state they live in”.
After years of bitter debate and legislative stalemate over the labeling of genetically modified ingredients, a compromise proposal sailed through Congress in breathtaking speed over the past three weeks.
“It is a non-labeling bill disguised as a labeling bill”, says Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety, “a sham and a legislative embarrassment”.
The federal bill also bans future state labeling laws.
But some Democrats, including Rep. Rosa DeLauro, are highly critical of the legislation, denouncing it as an industry-sponsored effort that sets a weak labeling standard.
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GMO labeling advocates say that allowing companies to merely place a QR code or direct consumers to a website for ingredient information allows the food industry to remain non-transparent to many consumers.
