The Senate Agriculture Committee approved on Tuesday by 14 to 6 to approve the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act written by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) to stop states from enacting their own labeling laws for products with genetically modified ingredients (GMOs). The legislation will now go to a vote on the Senate floor.
The legislation would also amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 by requiring the Secretary of Agriculture to create an additional voluntary GMO labeling standard with those standards being in the hands of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) , Joe Donnelly (D-IN), and Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) joined with the Republicans in supporting the bill. Senate Agriculture ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) said she could not support anything but a mandatory labeling measure. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) spoke against the bill, saying it would stop Vermont’s labeling law from going into effect.
Vermont’s mandatory law requiring on-package labels of food containing GMOs goes into effect on July 1, 2016. Should Vermont’s GMO law withstand a legal challenge, it is anticipated that other states may seek to put similar measures in place. Such a patchwork of state laws would disrupt supply chains and cause inefficiencies in production, storage, manufacturing, and distribution of food and feed that could translate into significant cost increase for consumers, critics of the Vermont law say.
On Wednesday, a new bill introduced by Democratic Senators Jeff Merkley (OR), Patrick Leahy (VT), Jon Tester, (MT), and Diane Feinstein (CA) also bans state labels, but would mandate nationwide that food manufacturers label GMOs on their on packages.
The Biotechnology Food Labeling and Uniformity Act would amend the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act to require manufacturers to disclose the presence of GMO ingredients on the Nutrition Fact Panel. However, the bill offers food manufacturers several options as to exactly where on food labels the presence of GMO ingredients would need to be disclosed.
Senator Merkley is the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee on which Senators Tester, Leahy and Feinstein also serve. Senator Leahy is also a former chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
The House of Representatives passed its legislation last year.
