After three years of state-level referendums that cost $100 million, the fight over labeling GMO foods will come to Congress in 2015, say two organization leaders, Laura Batcha of the Organic Trade Association and Scott Faber of the Just Label It campaign. “The fight is shifting to D.C.,” Faber told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by OTA. Batcha said “we really see 2015 as the year the fight moves to Washington.” The food industry and its allies will try to push through a bill to block states from passing laws that mandate labeling of food made with genetically modified organisms, said Faber.
The likely debating points were rehearsed this fall in Oregon’s statewide referendum on GMO labeling, said Faber. They are: the cost to industry to comply with labeling, whether a state or national standard is best, and whether labeling would drive away consumers.
Bills are pending in Congress to pre-empt states from requiring labels and to require labeling nationwide. A bill by Rep Mike Pompeo, Kansas Republican, to preclude state labeling and to keep it voluntary on the federal level, was expected to get an airing before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health today. Final action is not expected on any of the bills this year.