GMO labeling

Congressional Democrats got high grades and Republicans generally floundered on a 2015 scorecard by the advocacy group Food Policy Action. The scoring included votes on hot-button issues such as GMO food labeling, the upstream reach of the Clean Water Act, and trade legislation, which inspired party-line voting.

he Democratic leader on the Senate Agriculture Committee said she is committed to passing a bill that pre-empts state GMO food-labeling laws. "This needs to needs to move quickly," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. Vermont's first-in-the-nation labeling law will take effect on July 1. The food industry says Congress needs to override the Vermont law before the end of this year to prevent a costly hodgepodge of labeling rules.

The sponsors of a House bill to prevent states from requiring special labels on GMO foods are considering a new version that would put the USDA in charge of certifying if foods are made from genetically modified organisms or not. The bill, filed by Mike Pompeo of Kansas and GK Butterfield of North Carolina, would keep labeling voluntary at the federal level.

Seventeen lawmakers signed as co-sponsors to the Pompeo-Butterfield bill in the House to pre-empt state labeling of foods made with genetically modified organisms. Rep. Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican, told reporters he's spent a lot of time talking to senators about the legislation, a broader-reaching bill than his 2014 version. "We just have to find the right path forward," he said, which means finding well-positioned sponsors who could help steer the bill through committee approval to a floor vote.

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.

House and Senate sponsors announced a new drive in Congress to require labels on food made with genetically modified organisms. "Consumers have a right to know what is in the foods they eat," said California Sen. Barbara Boxer, one of the lead sponsors of the legislation. Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, the lead sponsor in the House, said, "If food manufacturers stand by their product and the technology they use to make it, they should have no problem disclosing that information to consumers."

The Yes on Measure 92 campaign admitted defeat of the Oregon referendum to put special labels on food made with genetically modified organisms. In a statement on its Web site, the campaign said it "is ending its efforts today." The initiative lost by 837 votes out of 1.5 million ballots, according to unofficial results of an automatic recount, two dozen more than the certified Nov 4 results.

The leader of the largest U.S. farm organization said GMO food labeling, debated at the state level for the past three years, would result in "patchwork regulation that will do nothing but raise the cost of food." At the opening session of the American Farm Bureau Federation convention in San Diego, president Bob Stallman said "we need a national, fact-based approach to food labeling." Stallman also said, "We need to maintain farmers' access to better seeds and technology, whether it's through today's technology or innovations yet to come."

After three years of state-level referendums that cost $100 million, the fight over labeling GMO foods will come to Congress in 2015, say two organization leaders, Laura Batcha of the Organic Trade Association and Scott Faber of the Just Label It campaign. "The fight is shifting to D.C.," Faber told reporters at a breakfast sponsored by OTA. Batcha said "we really see 2015 as the year the fight moves to Washington."