Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo is expected to file a new version this week of his bill to pre-empt state laws that require labels on food made with genetically modified organisms, according to reports by Agri-Pulse and Politico. The bill would include language allowing the USDA to certify foods to be sold with a non-GMO label. Food companies that use the non-GMO label “would be barred from suggesting ‘either expressly or by implication’ that their products are safer than biotech versions,” says Agri-Pulse.
Word of the new legislation circulated ahead of the House Agriculture Committee’s “examination of the costs and impacts of mandatory biotechnology labeling laws,” scheduled for today at 10 a.m ET. Witnesses include officials from Land O’ Lakes, the Snack Food Association and the International Food Information Council. A Vermont law would require labels on GMO foods starting in July 2016.
The new bill would allow labeling to be voluntary at the federal level unless there is material difference between the GMO variety and the conventionally bred strain. Farm groups and the biotech industry say years of tests show that the crops are identical and that labeling would inaccurately vilify the GMO version. Scott Faber, of the Environmental Working Group, says the House hearing will be an anti-labeling forum headlined with assertions that labeling will boost food prices. “All of them will be wrong,” says Faber, adding that disclosure is not disparagement.
In mid-February, advocates of mandatory GMO food labeling filed bills in the House and Senate. One of the Senate sponsors, Democrat Barbara Boxer of California, said the FDA follows “antiquated” standards in saying there is no difference between GMO and conventional crops. “Common sense would indicate that GE corn that produces its own insecticide, or is engineered to survive being treated with herbicides, is materially different from traditional corn that does not,” says a Boxer release.