GMO-labeling campaign deploys star power at Capitol
The GMO food-labeling campaign brought Hollywood star power to the Capitol as a counterweight to House passage of a bill to pre-empt state labeling laws. “What we’ve got is a real fight on our hands,” said Gary Hirshberg, chairman of advocacy group Just label It. “We’re recruiting celebrities because we’re being out-spent 25 to one.”
When actress Blythe Danner and her daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow, joined four senators to talk about mandatory labeling of food made with genetically modified organisms, the result was an elbow-to-elbow news conference seldom seen in the world of food policy. Nine TV crews set up tripods in an overcrowded meeting room on the ground floor of the Capitol. Paltrow surreptitiously took a couple of photos of the crowd while other advocates spoke.
“I’m not here as an expert,” said Paltrow. “I’m here as an American mother” who wants to know what’s in the food that her family eats. Danner said more than 200,000 people have signed a Just Label It letter asking senators and President Obama to oppose the House bill, HR 1599. The goal is 500,000 signatures before Labor Day.
With the Senate hours away from recessing until September, there was no discussion of upcoming hearings or votes. Neither side has enough backing to act. California Sen. Barbara Boxer has 14 cosponsors of her GMO labeling bill, S 511, which is idle in the Health Committee. North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, a Republican, says he doesn’t have Democratic support to file a Senate companion to the House bill. There is speculation the GMO pre-emption legislation will become a rider on a must-pass bill late in the year.
Food companies and processors say the House bill would prevent a welter of state and local regulations that would drive up food prices. Besides barring state labeling laws, the House bill would keep labeling voluntary on the federal level and put the USDA in charge of certifying non-GMO foods.
“This is just a little bit of an addition to our food label,” said Boxer, who said 64 countries have labeling laws. Sens. Pat Leahy of Vermont and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut also supported labeling. Vermont’s first-in-the-nation labeling law is due to take effect next July 1.
Paltrow, who also is the author of a cookbook and a lifestyle blogger, was asked if she avoids GMO foods – the buik of processed foods sold in grocery stores probably contain GMOs. “There is no label,” she said. “I’m a home cook and I’m a cookbook author, and I’m a proponent of organic food and healthy food when I can, but we all eat genetically modified food. It’s in the food supply.”
Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a burly organic farmer known for his trademark flattop haircut, spoke against the pre-emption bill before introducing Paltrow. “Who would have thought a dirt farmer from Montana would ever be able to introduce Gywneth Paltrow?” he asked.