After Vermont’s enactment of the first-in-the-nation labeling law for genetically engineered foods in 2014, state legislatures are comparatively quiet on the issue this year. Only four items were enacted during sessions that ended this spring and two of them were resolutions, from Idaho and North Dakota, that ask Congress to ensure there is a uniform national standard for labeling, says the National Conference of State Legislatures. New laws in Connecticut and Maine exempt nonalcoholic malt beverages from potential GMO labeling.
“It’s much quieter this year than years past on the labeling front,” said NCSL’s Doug Farquhar. He counted 55 bills in 19 states, about half the number of bills that were filed last year. “We’ve seen a maturation of the issue,” said Farquhar.
While most of the bills are broad-brush legislation to label GE foods, bills in Georgia and New York called for studies of the issue. Lawmakers in Maine and Oregon proposed to ban GE seafood while an unsuccessful bill in Connecticut would have restricted sales of GE grass seed. Bills pending in Tennessee would help certify foods as non-GE.
Hawaii was the beehive for GE legislation, with 11 bills that dealt with the issue. None advanced in the first session of the biennium. They ranged from a denial of tax breaks to some non-food biotech products and a ban on planting GE crops in open fields, to requiring companies to disclose any risks from GE foods.
NCSL listed most of the bills nationwide as “pending.” Many have not seen action in months and most legislatures will not return to session for months to come. More than a dozen bills related to GE food died this spring.
Grassroots and business groups spent tens of millions of dollars on statewide GE labeling referendums three years in a row in the West. The labeling campaign failed by .07 percent in Oregon last November. The drop-off in state legislation could reflect the ripple effect of that defeat, or simply the lull following a strenuous election year.
A House Agriculture subcommittee is scheduled to review federal food-labeling legislation on Thursday. The focus is expected to be a bill to keep labeling voluntary at the federal level and to pre-empt state GE food-label laws. HR 1599, spearheaded by Rep. Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican, also would put the USDA in charge of certifying foods as non-GMO.
Proponents of federal pre-emption say it would be costly and disruptive for foodmakers to try to satisfy a web of state labeling requirements. Vermont’s law is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2016. Maine and Connecticut have passed labeling laws but they won’t take effect unless four other states adopt similar legislation.
To see an NCSL listing of state legislation on genetically engineered food, click here.