The U.S. Senate has passed, by a vote of 63 to 30, a bill that would create a national standard for labeling food made with genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In total, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) estimates food and biotech companies have spent more than 0 million to fight mandatory GMO labeling, donating to politicians who would negotiate weaker requirements.
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The Senate compromise bill would also pre-empt state action, including Vermont’s GMO labeling law, which became effective July 1.
The legislation (S. 764), would block states from issuing mandatory labeling laws and require food manufacturers to use one of three different labels to inform consumers of the presence of GMOs in products. Most contend such labeling is unnecessary, since genetically modified foods are safe, but say the Roberts-Stabenow bill is preferable to a “patch-work quilt” of state labels. “With final passage by the Senate, approval by the House, and with President Obama’s signature, we can establish a national framework to provide information to consumers without stigmatizing agricultural biotechnology and complicating how companies market foods in interstate commerce”. The law’s vagueness and even usage of a QR (quick response) code may also cause confusion and exclusion of some GMO products. “This bill is a travesty, an undemocratic and discriminatory bill which preempts state laws, while offering no meaningful labeling for GMOs”, said Friends of the Earth.
The legislation has attracted plenty of controversy in the weeks since Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Pat Roberts (R-KS), ranking member and chairman of the Agriculture Committee, respectively, announced details of the bill.
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Food ingredients like beet sugar and soybean oil, which can be derived from genetically-engineered crops but contain next to no genetic material by the time they are processed, may not fall under the law’s definition of a bioengineered food, critics say. The state’s law confused some local retailers. “The legislation is not ideal, but it does take critical steps to prevent a confusing 50-state patchwork of laws disclosing the presence of entirely harmless ingredients”. As the GOP has historically been a supporter of voluntary labeling, it is unclear how a bill which mandates GMO labeling will be received by Republicans in the House. The bill cleared the 60-vote threshold to advance on Wednesday, setting the stage for a formal Senate vote to pass it that could occur as early as Thursday. “What they want to do, these food companies, is not tell you as a consumer whether it has GMO’s or not”.
