The largest U.S. farm group supports voluntary rather than mandatory nationwide labeling of GMO foods, said Zippy Duvall, shortly after his election as president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he would meet food industry and labeling activists this week — today, according to one source — to see if there is common ground on labeling. The food industry, which has spent years battling GMO labels, says it will be costly and disruptive to comply with Vermont’s first-in-the-nation labeling law, which takes effect July 1.
“We as an organization … encourage a voluntary solution to that, something that would be nationwide and would have some consistency to it. We don’t have any problem with them [Campbell Soup] labeling their product as GMO, but we do not support mandatory labeling,” said Duvall at a news conference in Orlando.
Campbell Soup announced at the end of last week that it supports a mandatory labeling law and would begin putting labels on its products if there is no resolution soon to the issue. The food industry says labeling should remain voluntary at the national level and Congress should pre-empt state laws, but lawmakers are at an impasse on legislation. “If there is going to be any activity relative to the Vermont law, obviously, it is going to have to be made through members of Congress,” Vilsack said during a town hall session on Sunday at the AFBF annual meeting.
A dairy and chicken farmer, Duvall, who has been president of the Georgia Farm Bureau for nine years, told reporters that comprehensive immigration reform was vital to assure an agricultural workforce. “There’s a crisis across this country, getting crops out of the field,” he said.”That is one of the issues that I think needs attention as soon as possible.”
During a policy-writing session, AFBF delegates agreed that cottonseed should be one of the “other oilseeds” eligible for the same subsidies offered to grain and soybean growers, at a potential cost of up to $1 billion a year. They also supported the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. And, the AFBF said, “Delegates also called for a voluntary and uniform labeling system for products designated as genetically modified organisms. They denounced mandatory labeling of food products containing GMOs at the local, state and federal levels.”
Duvall won the AFBF presidency, a two-year term, in a third-ballot run-off with Don Villwock of Indiana. Earlier balloting eliminated candidates Kevin Rogers of Arizona and Barry Bushue of Oregon. Duvall succeeds Bob Stallman, of Texas, who retired after 16 years. While U.S. agriculture often seems dominated by the Midwest, AFBF membership is largest in the South, so those states hold the largest block of votes. Delegates elected Scott VanderWal, the South Dakota Farm Bureau president, as AFBF vice president.