The senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee gave a copy of her GMO food-labeling bill to chairman Pat Roberts and started staff-level briefings of farm and environmental groups, said The Hagstrom Report — steps that suggest a well-advanced effort to resolve the issue. The Senate has been deadlocked over GMO regulation for two months and Vermont’s first-in-the-nation label law takes effect July 1.
For weeks Stabenow has said mandatory disclosure of GMO ingredients was the price for Senate passage of a pre-emption of state labeling laws. The food industry and farm groups want a uniform standard of voluntary labeling, rather than the potential for conflicting state laws. On a party-line vote, the Senate rejected in mid-March a Roberts bill to pre-empt states and keep labeling voluntary at the national level, as it has been for two decades.
A spokesman for Stabenow was not immediately available to discuss progress on the bill or its format for disclosure of GMOs. The labeling campaign wants the words “made with GMOs” on food packages. The food industry has launched a voluntary system of QR codes on packages.
In public comments, both sides have put the onus on the other to find the solution to the impasse. Roberts, for instance, said earlier this week that Stabenow needed to win over food and ag groups before legislation could be considered.