The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday announced legislation to pre-empt Vermont’s law and give food companies more flexibility with the labels.
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They claimed that GMO labels are unnecessary and would only confuse consumers, but food activists have argued that consumers have a right to know what’s in their food.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, unveiled the plan that had been negotiated for weeks with U.S. Sen.
It is anticipated that the bill will come to the Senate floor for a vote next week.
Shumlin, a Democrat, made the comments Thursday after hearing that US senators have reached a bi-partisan deal to require the labeling of food made with GMOs, but it would be more lenient than Vermont’s law.
“We’ve seen time and time again that regardless of the repeated proven safety of GMOs, consumers react negatively when presented with a product containing a warning label”, said Moore.
“The majority of Americans support labeling for GMOs and will hold their elected officials accountable if they vote to strip away transparency about how their food is produced”.
Vermont’s law requires any foods made from genetically modified ingredients to be labeled.
“This proposal falls short of what consumers rightly expect – a simple at-a-glance disclosure on the package”, Hirshberg said. But under the law now proposed, food companies could avoid any mention of genetic engineering on their packages and “disclose” GMO ingredients through digital codes rather than on-package language. Producers who’ve secured a “certified organic” designation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture would be allowed to clearly display a “non-GMO” label on their products.
Congressional action is needed to avert major supply chain disruptions and inefficiencies in production, storage, transportation, manufacturing and distribution of food and feed that would translate into significant cost increases for consumers.
Meat, poultry and eggs – regulated by USDA – would generally be exempt.
The Vermont law requires products with biotech ingredients to be labeled as produced or partially produced with genetic engineering.
Consumer groups are vowing to blitz members of Congress with demands that they block the law, reminding them that this isn’t about politics – it’s about a consumer’s fundamental right to make an informed decision about the food they are buying for themselves and their families.
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 23, 2016 -“There are no – and never have been any- documented health risks from genetically engineered food in the marketplace”. They worry that because most GMO crops are sprayed with glyphosate herbicide, which the World Health Organization has declared a probable human carcinogen, that GMO foods might contain risky levels of that pesticide. The latest iteration of a national GMO labeling standard is mandatory, but manufacturers have options.
Consumer advocates accused Stabenow of selling out consumer interests to appease food and big agriculture interests, such as Monsanto Co., the chief purveyor of GMO seed technology.
“For the first time ever, consumers will have a national, mandatory label for food products that contain genetically modified ingredients”, she said.
In a statement, Roberts said the legislation will protect producers and inform consumers.
The plan still needs to be approved by the Senate and then faces a tough vote in the U.S. House, which last year rejected a mandatory GMO label bill earlier this year.
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Senate reaches bipartisan deal on food labels – McClatchyDC – Bill prohibits ag secretary from designating meats at GMO because the animal may have eaten genetically engineered feed. “Since time is of the essence, we urge our colleagues to move swiftly to support this bill”, Roberts and Stabenow said in a joint statement.
