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Overruling Vermont’s GMO Labeling Law: Will Obama Sign ‘Industry Sponsored’ Law Change Bernie Sanders Strongly Opposed?

By Dawn Papple
Published on: 09:53 PST, Jul 14, 2016

Thursday the House agreed 306 to 117 to move forward with changes to an amendment to an existing law that would overrule state GMO labeling laws like Vermont’s strong labeling law. The move was strongly approved of by large corporations and industry giants. The amendment to an existing, old law was negotiated by U.S. Senate agriculture leaders Senator Pat Roberts and Senator Debbie Stabenow as a vehicle to introduce a national GMO labeling standard. After negotiations, changes were approved by the U.S. Senate July 7 and were passed back to the House. Having been approved by the House, the amendment is now headed for President Obama’s desk to be signed into federal law.

A petition to the White House asking President Obama to veto the legislation has over 40 thousand of the 100 thousand signatures needed to get a response from the Obama administration. Will President Obama sign the changes into law?

The bipartisan deal was rapidly pushed through Congress just as the Vermont law requiring labels on foods made with genetically modified ingredients kicked in. The language changes approved by the House that would affect Vermont’s strong labeling law is found in Senate Amendment 4935, the procedural action of substituting text in S. 764 with language agreed upon by Sens. Roberts and Stabenow, according to FMI.

This federal legislation will set a weaker, less transparent federal standard for GMO disclosure on food products than Vermont’s labeling law mandates, according to dozens of consumer advocacy and GMO labeling groups. The move was strongly opposed by Senator Bernie Sanders and some other lawmakers, but was applauded by most of the nation’s lawmakers.

The legislative move, if signed by President Obama, will create the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard and alter the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946. It allows the food industry itself, rather than voters, to decide exactly how to inform consumers that foods contain GMOs. Numerous GMO products will be exempt from labeling requirements due to the wording of the legislation.

Bernie Sanders pointed out that the way it has been written, the legislation will also mandate almost no recourse if the labeling requirement isn’t followed by the food industry.

“Monsanto, agribusiness and the bio-tech industry have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to overturn legislation passed by Vermont, Connecticut, Maine and Alaska that calls for the labeling of GMO food,” Senator Sanders wrote in an email when he implored his supporters opposing the changes to the existing law to write to their own lawmakers.

GMO labeling advocates say that allowing companies to merely place a QR code or direct consumers to a website for ingredient information allows the food industry to remain non-transparent to many consumers. Sanders said that the new text benefits only the food industry and hides actual disclosure from the end consumer.

NPR explained the biggest problem that critics have with the legislation that has now made it through Congress.

“Under the plan, food companies would be required to disclose which products contain genetically modified ingredients. But companies would have a range of options in just how they make that disclosure: They could place text on food packaging, provide a QR (Quick Response) code, or direct consumers to a phone number or a website with more information.”

“The deal falls short for those who wanted a national standard much like Vermont’s,” NPR‘s report states.

The Des Moines Register reported early in July that the bill potentially exclude thousands of items that consumers would consider GMOs to go unlabeled. Even a report from the Food and Drug Administration stated that the lawmakers’ word choices would exempt oil made from GE soybeans, starches, and purified proteins made from GMOs from requiring a GMO label.

“Looks like we’re finally getting GMO labels on food products—just not the kind you can actually read,” PBS reported Thursday. According to that report, the White House says that President Obama is expected to sign the bill that will overrule Vermont’s GMO labeling law.

Sens. Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch all argued strongly against the move.

“If there is an acknowledgement about the right of a consumer to have access to information, why not give them the information in plain and simple English?” asked Rep. Welch on the House floor, before the legislation passed by a strong margin.

[Image via Pixabay]

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