U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss ruled that Vermont can proceed with its first-in-the-nation law requiring special labels on food made with genetically modified organisms. The law takes effect on July 1, 2016. Foodmakers sued to block the law shortly after it was passed last year, and requested an injunction against implementation of the law while the suit was being decided. “The judge partially granted and partially denied the state’s motion to dismiss the industry lawsuit, meaning the case is likely to go to trial,” said the Associated Press.
The decision could add impetus to the push for Congress to settle the matter. Legislation might appear as a faster and broader-reaching approach than litigating the issue in court with an uncertain timeline for a ruling. At present, labeling of GMO food is voluntary on the federal level. Reps. Mike Pompeo of Kansas and GK Butterfield unveiled a bill on March 25to pre-empt state labeling laws and keep labeling voluntary. The bill also would allow the USDA to certify foods as GMO-free.
“We’ve got to have a bill that pre-empts the states,” House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway told the North American Agricultural Journalists, warning that state GMO label laws would make a muddle of the nationwide food marketing system. “I want something on the president’s desk. This is vitally important” for interstate commerce. Speaking separately to NAAJ, the top-ranking Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, Collin Peterson, supported voluntary labeling and opposed state labeling laws.
“‘Don’t fix it,'” Peterson said in recounting his advice to foodmakers that they refuse to change their labels and simply skirt states that demand GMO labels. “Somehow or other, we have to get their [consumers’] attention.”
Reiss rejected arguments by foodmakers that the Vermont law violated constitutional guarantees of free speech and federal control of interstate commerce, said FoodNavigator.The federal judge said Congress has given deference to states on food regulation and the foodmakers failed to show that an injunction was needed to prevent harm to foodmakers.
“Vermont and its citizens have set the country on a course toward a future where labeling of foods made with GMOs will one day be the law of the land,” said the Just Label Itcampaign, describing the ruling as “a milestone victory.”
“We are reviewing this decision and considering our legal options. Manufacturers are being harmed, and they are being harmed now,” said the Grocery Manufacturers Association. It said “a 50-state patchwork of GMO labeling policies … will be costly and confusing for consumers.”
Attorney General Bill Sorrell of Vermont said the ruling showed the state is on solid ground with its law, and likely to prevail at trial. News site Vermont Digger quoted Sorrell as saying, “On the fundamental heart and soul issues of the law, and that is the mandatory labeling of foods that contain genetically engineered ingredients, the plaintiffs are going to have a very difficult time seeing that that is struck down by this court.”
The 84-page decision by Reiss is available here.