With a two-week recess looming, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told a Senate panel that the best solution to the debate over GMO food labeling is a digital scanning label. “That’s why I suggested establishment of a smart label process which would essentially give consumers who are interested information that they’re interested in but not in a way that convey a false impression about the safety of a product,” Vilsack said during a hearing by the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture.
Vilsack’s approach, similar to a SmartLabel initiative launched last December by the food industry, would rely on websites, toll-free telephone numbers and QR codes scanned by smartphones to deliver information about ingredients. It would be a system of mandatory disclosure but not mandatory labeling, lobbyists told The Hagstrom Report. The report said Senate Agriculture Committee leaders were moving toward a bill that pre-empts state or local GMO labeling while requiring food companies to disclose via smart labels if their products contain GMOs.
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley said labeling advocates are adamant that packages must carry a label that says in clear language if the food is made with GMOs. Merkley is sponsor of a GMO labeling bill that requires notification on packages but not on the front panel. “Individuals have the right to know what’s in their food,” Merkley said during a Senate speech. “Big Agriculture says … ‘we want to make the decision for them.'”
The Senate Agriculture Committee approved, 14-6, a bill to pre-empt state labeling laws last week but the three Democrats who voted for the bill said modifications were needed before it could pass the Senate. Republicans control the Senate 54-46 and would need the support of several Democrats to be assured of a 60-vote majority to overcome parliamentary roadblocks.
“Negotiations are ongoing,” said a spokeswoman for Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts. She said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who voted by proxy for the Roberts bill in committee, would decide when to ask a floor vote. Published reports said opponents of state labeling laws hoped for a Senate vote before a two-week recess that begins on March 18.
Vermont’s first-in-the-nation GMO label law takes effect on July 1.