The USDA letter is a response to a request from Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), asking the agency to clarify the definition of bioengineering in the bill.
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A bill proposed to the US senate would require foods with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to be labelled, but would allow food manufacturers the ability to choose the type of labelling.
01 Jul 2016 — Coca-Cola has warned customers that some of its products may not be available in retailers in Vermont, as a new law on GMO-labeling comes into effect today in the USA state. The bill also contains huge loopholes and imposes no federal penalties whatsoever for violating the labeling requirement. “Its goal is to overturn and rescind the very significant legislation passed in the state of Vermont”. Monsanto is pushing its puppets to pass the DARK Act quickly this week, effectively killing Vermont’s labeling law without a single hearing on the issue of labeling foods or seeds. “That is why states like Vermont, Maine, Connecticut and Alaska have adopted laws to label goods containing GMOs and why many other states are interested and on the path to do that”.
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The food industry, which battled for years against mandatory on-package GMO labels, has been generally supportive of the compromise after losing an expensive lobbying battle for a bill that specifically banned mandatory GMO labeling. If our democracy actually worked, this bill never would have seen the light of day, because people overwhelmingly want to know what’s in their food and support GMO labeling. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says if they get solid numbers on cloture, he anticipates a vote on the Roberts-Stabenow compromise measure sometime on Thursday.
