The Codes Committee of the New York Assembly, the lower house of the state legislature, approved a GMO food labeling bill on a 12-9 vote with less than two weeks left in the session. Lawmakers said the committee vote was a sign the labeling bill, which now needs approval by the Ways and Means Committee, has strength to pass this year.
“With Vermont’s GMO labeling law set to take effect in July, New Yorkers are entitled to as much protection as their neighbors,” said Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, sponsor of A617. Legislators are focusing on A617 and its Senate companion, S485, as the bills most likely to pass. The consumer group Food and Water Watch said a majority of members of the Assembly support A617, so if a floor vote is scheduled, “it will surely pass.”
The Senate bill was in the Rules Committee.
For the most part, legislators have taken a wait-and-see approach this year on GMO labeling because of congressional debate over pre-emption of state law and court challenges to Vermont’s mandatory label law, which takes effect July 1.