Rebuffed this year on pre-emption of state labeling laws, the food industry sees the chance for a compromise on GMO food labeling in January under the leadership of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “We stand ready to roll up our sleeves to work with him and others to find a solution that can be passed by Congress quickly,” said Roger Lowe of the Grocery Manufacturers Association. GMA says Vilsack has spoken to GMA “and others involved in the effort to find a compromise” about a get-together.
“We’d welcome the opportunity to develop a national mandatory GMO disclosure that would work for consumers and did not stigmatize GMOs but to be effective, any disclosure has to be mandatory,” said Scott Faber, executive director of the Just Label It campaign. He declined to comment on a possible meeting refereed by Vilsack.
The food industry, which has spent tens of millions of dollars against GMO labeling proposals, says time is running out. Vermont’s first-in-the-nation GMO food labeling law takes effect July 1. Food companies will face costs “totaling hundreds of millions of dollars” to change labels and alter distribution routes to comply with the state law, says GMA.
In a Modern Farmer interview published last week, Vilsack said, “I think USDA has a role in trying to mediate or arbitrate or help solve” the argument in Congress over labeling. “I don’t think it’s in the best interests of anyone, frankly, to have multiple different standards that will increase the cost of food in some cases or limit access to food, particularly for folks who are struggling economically. So, yeah, we are going to be involved in that. I would anticipate that after the first of the year that we’re going to be focusing a lot of attention on that,” said Vilsack.
Food companies say the new SmartLabel, a QR code that shoppers can scan with smartphones, is an ideal way to provide detailed information about food products. An estimated 20,000 products will carry the SmartLabel by the end of 2017, says GMA. Groups that support GMO labeling say the disclosure must be on the package itself. Using QR codes puts at a disadvantage poor people, who are less likely to own a smartphone, and rural Americans, where broadband service is not as uniformly available, they say.
“After the New Year, there will be a new opportunity for action and we must act quickly to reach a bipartisan agreement,” said Debbie Stabenow, the lead Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee. Stabenow said she aimed for “a common-sense solution on GMO labeling that addresses both consumers’ right to know and the concerns of food producers.” Stabenow was among a more than a dozen Senate Democrats credited with preventing pre-emption of state label laws.
The House passed a pre-emption bill, HR 1599, by a land-slide margin last summer that also would keep labeling voluntary on the federal level and put USDA in charge of certifying foods are GMO or non-GMO. But it never gained enough bipartisan support to pass in the Senate.
The anti-GMO Center for Food Safety said public outcry persuaded lawmakers to shelve the pre-emption bill for this year. The food industry campaigned to include the pre-emption language in the $1.15 trillion government funding bill.
While the pre-emption language was left out of the bill, the funding bill includes a provision to prevent sale of GMO salmon until FDA writes a mandatory labeling rule for it. FDA recently approved sale of the genetically engineered AquAdvantage salmon, the first GE animal approved for human consumption. Alaskan lawmakers have routinely included GMO salmon labeling language in appropriations bills in recent years.