Congress will have to decide whether to require special labels on foods made with genetically modified organisms, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who tried to broker a compromise between labeling advocates and foodmakers, who oppose mandatory labels. “I think that’s … where our conversation broke down and I think it’s a place that Congress is going to have to address,” Vilsack said, during a hearing on USDA’s budget for fiscal 2017. There was no consensus on that fundamental point, he said.
Congress deadlocked over mandatory GMO labeling at the end of last year. Vermont’s first-in-the-nation labeling law takes effect on July 1. Foodmakers say they face millions of dollars in costs to comply with the Vermont law and worry that other states could adopt different labeling rules. The House passed an industry-backed bill last summer that would pre-empt state labeling laws and keep labeling voluntary on the federal level, but it failed to get support in the Senate. Label advocates say consumers have a right to know what’s in the food they eat.
Federal policy says GMO foods are safe to eat and indistinguishable from conventional crops, so there is no reason to label them. Rep Robert Aderholt, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, said the administration ought to do more to assure Americans that GMOs are safe. Vilsack said food companies also should act.
“I think there’s going to be an aggressive effort from this point forward (by the food industry) to educate people so they can make informed decisions,” said Vilsack.
Vilsack has suggested that bar codes or other digital methods could resolve the argument over what words appear on a food package. The food industry has announced an initiative that uses QR codes that can be scanned by smartphones.
“We just didn’t quite get to the last issue,” Vilsack said of two meetings that he hosted. “I think the last issue is after you create some kind of multiple mechanism for informing consumers – whether it’s a smart label, whether its a 1-800 number, whether its a web-based system – and after you educate people about the availability of that information, the question then is: What happens at the end of that?
“Do you then put something on the front of the package or the back of the package that says GMO or identifies this? Or do you survey consumers to find out if they know how to use this information if they’re interested in it, and if you show a substantial number of consumers already knowledgeable, then the question is what’s the necessity of putting something on the package?” said Vilsack. But there was no agreement on that.
The vast majority of U.S. corn, soybeans and sugar beets are grown with GMO seeds, so GMOs are part of many processed foods.