[T]he U.S. House on Thursday passed a bill that would bar states from imposing labeling regulations on food manufacturers that use genetically modified ingredients in their products.
The bill was approved 257-150 by the Republican-controlled House, sparking the ire of Vermont officials, who see it as an attempt to scuttle a state law passed last year that would mandate such labels on food products sold in Vermont.
The state law, which is scheduled to go into effect in July 2016, requires food manufacturers selling in Vermont to label products containing genetically engineered ingredients. The products can also no longer be labeled “natural” or “naturally made.”
Trade groups representing the food industry challenged the Vermont law immediately after it was passed.
A U.S. District Court ruled in April that the state’s labeling law was constitutional under certain legal precedents.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association and other trade groups appealed a ruling that Vermont’s law could go into effect before the litigation is settled.
Welch slammed the industry in his statement before the House on Thursday.
“The issue is whether consumers have a right to know what’s in the food they are feeding their families,” Welch said. “If Monsanto is so proud of its product, then why on earth is it waging an all-out war to hide it from families who simply want to know what’s in their food?”
The bill passed by the House was introduced in March by Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., as the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act.
A spokesman for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who opposes the bill, is co-sponsoring an effort by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to create a national labeling law similar to Vermont’s. David Carle, a Leahy staffer, said it’s not clear if the Pompeo bill will make it to the Senate for a vote.
“There’s a considerable backlog of pressing legislative matters on the Senate’s agenda already,” Carle said. Boxer’s bill is called the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act.
“Supporters of this [new] bill warn of a patchwork of state regulations,” Leahy said. “The best way to avoid that is for the federal government to follow Vermont’s lead and adopt a nationwide GMO labeling requirement.”
Welch argued in the House that the bill was not just an attack on consumers, but also on a state’s right to carry out the will of its residents.
“This is not about a small group of activists,” he said to the House, in a video posted on C-Span. “This is states like Vermont, like Maine, and like Connecticut – with massive bipartisan votes, Republicans and Democrats, saying that they want the right to have these products labeled, and then the consumer can decide whether he or she wants to purchase that product. So it’s the market that ultimately decides,” he said.
“This legislation fundamentally takes away from your state and mine, the ability to do what they believe is in the interests of consumers — let them know what they’re buying,” he said.
Opponents argue that there is no conclusive scientific evidence that GMO products are harmful and the food industry also says allowing states to impose their own labeling laws would cost the industry millions of dollars and confuse consumers. Vermont is the only state to have passed a mandatory labeling law, but several other states are considering them.
“Monsanto and their corporate food allies have millions of dollars to dedicate to this fight, and today’s vote shows that they are quite skilled in using those vast resources to buy votes in Congress,” Shumlin said in a statement.
What the corporation couldn’t do, he said, was win the war.
“Millions of Americans are demanding the right to know what is in their food. And every time Monsanto fights tooth and nail to deny people that right, all they do is grow the ranks of ordinary Americans,” Shumlin said. “So this message is for Monsanto: Bring it on.”
