Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts was negotiating terms of a bill that could be called for Senate debate next week to pre-empt state GMO food-labeling laws. A Roberts spokeswoman said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he wants to move the legislation next week, before a two-week recess.
The Agriculture Committee approved Roberts’ plan to override state labeling laws on March 1 with Democrats warning that revisions were needed to win bipartisan support, and passage, of the bill. The senior Democrat on the committee, Debbie Stabenow, said labeling should be mandatory nationwide. The Roberts plan would leave it voluntary at the federal level.
When the Senate adjourned for the weekend, the only item on the calendar for next week was a vote on the nomination of John King for education secretary.
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley blasted proposals to link pre-emption with disclosure of ingredients via QR codes that could be scanned by smartphones, websites or toll-free telephone numbers. “Americans don’t want to stand there in a grocery store and start making phone calls to companies,” said Merkley, sponsor of a bill for mandatory labeling. “It is just wrong for the federal government to take away citizens’ right to know.”
The House passed a state pre-emption bill by a landslide margin last summer, but it got no headway in the Senate. The FDA has a policy of voluntary labeling. Farm and food industry groups say labeling would be a slur on foods that are safe to eat. Most of the corn, soybeans and sugarbeets grown in the United States are GMO strains, so most of the processed foods in American grocery stores contain GMOs.