The Agriculture Department has the experience to oversee a voluntary system for labeling non-GMO foods, leaders of the House Agriculture Committee said after a review of the department’s Process Verified Program. Creation of a voluntary labeling system for food made without genetically modified organisms is a key element of a House bill to pre-empt states from requiring special labels on GMO foods. The bill, spearheaded by Kansas Republican Mike Pompeo, would keep labeling of GMO food voluntary on the federal level. Foodmakers and farm groups say state labeling laws would splinter their marketing systems and drive up costs.
“We have just heard from USDA that they have the capability and resources to provide valuable oversight of these voluntary marketing claims,” said Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois, chairman of the House Agriculture subcommittee on biotechnology. Said Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway, “National uniformity is essential when making marketing claims for agricultural products – including those grown using the latest advances in biotechnology – in order to prevent confusion and inconsistencies from state to state.”
In mid-May, the USDA approved its first Process Verified Program (PVP) “for a company wishing to obtain third-party verification for its marketing claim that its products meet its desired standard of 99.1 percent non-genetically engineered content,” Craig Morris, deputy administrator of the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, told the subcommittee. PVPs assure buyers that a company’s production processes that support specific marketing claims have been verified by a third-party audit conducted by AMS.”
PVPs operate on a “fee for service” basis, said Morris, with revenue from the fees covering the cost of the work, so Congress doesn’t have to fund the programs. “The voluntary programs go where the market wants them.” At present, AMS audits 51 companies with PVP programs, covering marketing claims such as “no antibiotics ever” chicken. Morris stressed that under a PVP, the USDA verifies that processes are in place and operational so a company could meets its own standard. “The PVP is not a truth-in-food labeling program,” said Morris.
SunOpta Inc. has identified itself as the company with the first food manufacturing facility with a PVP for non-GMO products – a plant in Hope, Minnesota, that handles food-grade soybeans and corn. SunOpta, based in Minneapolis, specializes in organic, non-GMO and specialty foods.
To read testimony from the House Agriculture subcommittee hearing and statements by lawmakers, or to watch a video of the hearing, click here.