{"id":5621,"date":"2016-03-09T16:41:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T21:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/whats-at-stake-in-the-senates-looming-gmo-labeling-battle\/"},"modified":"2023-07-24T11:09:43","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T15:09:43","slug":"whats-at-stake-in-the-senates-looming-gmo-labeling-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/whats-at-stake-in-the-senates-looming-gmo-labeling-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s At Stake In The Senate&#8217;s Looming GMO Labeling Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">A key debate regarding products that contain genetically modified organisms &#8212; specifically, the question of whether they should have to carry labels stating as much &#8212; is set for a showdown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Last week, legislation cleared the Senate Agricultural Committee that would block state-level laws mandating GMO labeling. The legislation, which the committee passed with bipartisan support&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/fortune.com\/2016\/03\/02\/gmo-labeling\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-beacon=\"{\" p=\"\" mnid=\"\" entry_text=\"\" lnid=\"\" citation=\"\" mpid=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">in a 14-6 vote<\/a>, favors a voluntary national standard rather than mandatory labeling.&nbsp;It would pre-empt a labeling law in Vermont, the first of its kind in the U.S., that&#8217;s set to go into effect&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2014\/05\/08\/vermont-gmo-labeling_n_5290485.html\" target=\"_blank\" data-beacon=\"{\" p=\"\" mnid=\"\" entry_text=\"\" lnid=\"\" citation=\"\" mpid=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">in July<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.agriculture.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/EDW16221.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" data-beacon=\"{\" p=\"\" mnid=\"\" entry_text=\"\" lnid=\"\" citation=\"\" mpid=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">The bill<\/a>, backed by Agriculture Committee Chairman Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), could be called to a Senate vote as early as next week, according to The Huffington Post&rsquo;s sources. The House already approved similar legislation&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/gmo-labels-food_us_55b12fabe4b08f57d5d3f393\" data-beacon=\"{\" p=\"\" :=\"\" mnid=\"\" entry_text=\"\" lnid=\"\" citation=\"\" mpid=\"\" :3=\"\">last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Backers of the Roberts bill, which include prominent industry figures like ConAgra, DuPont, Coca-Cola and Walmart, appear confident in the proposal&rsquo;s chances, even as a rival group of senators has proposed alternative legislation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/114\/bills\/s2621\/BILLS-114s2621is.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" data-beacon=\"{\" p=\"\" mnid=\"\" entry_text=\"\" lnid=\"\" citation=\"\" mpid=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">alternative bill<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/news\/press-releases\/merkley-leahy-tester-feinstein-introduce-gmo-food-labeling-legislation\" target=\"_blank\" data-beacon=\"{\" p=\"\" mnid=\"\" entry_text=\"\" lnid=\"\" citation=\"\" mpid=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">introduced last week<\/a>, aims to protect state-level GMO laws while also working toward a plan that would avoid a national patchwork of conflicting regulations. It is backed by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Democrats&#8217; bill outlines four different ways manufacturers can disclose the use of GMOs on the already-required nutrition facts panel. They include a catchall statement that the product was &ldquo;produced with genetic engineering&rdquo; at the end of the ingredient list and the inclusion of a symbol developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that would note the presence of GMOs. Neither front-panel disclosures nor &ldquo;warnings&rdquo; would be required.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In a statement provided to HuffPost, Merkley said the legislation is a step toward &ldquo;a solution that works for businesses and consumers alike.&rdquo; Companies supporting the bill include Ben &amp;&nbsp;Jerry&rsquo;s, the Campbell Soup Company and Amy&rsquo;s Kitchen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">&ldquo;<\/span><span class=\"s2\">There is a way to give consumers the information they are asking for without placing unfair or conflicting requirements on food producers,&rdquo; Merkley&#8217;s statement reads. &ldquo;This legislation provides the common-sense pathway forward.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s2\">The&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/coalitionforsafeaffordablefood.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-beacon=\"{\" p=\"\" mnid=\"\" entry_text=\"\" lnid=\"\" citation=\"\" mpid=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Coalition for Safe Affordable Food<\/a>, the industry-backed group pushing Roberts&rsquo; bill, was unimpressed by the Merkley legislation. In a statement, the group said the proposal &ldquo;would end up stigmatizing a technology the farmers [Merkley] represents rely on&#8230; &nbsp;It can&rsquo;t pass, period.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s2\">&ldquo;This is another mandatory labeling solution in search of a non-existent problem,&rdquo; the CFSAF statement reads. &ldquo;Mandatory on-package labeling is reserved for important health and safety information or to distinguish material difference in products. This doesn&rsquo;t apply to biotech labeling because the overwhelming scientific consensus shows that GMOs are completely safe.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s2\">The FDA&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fda.gov\/Food\/FoodScienceResearch\/GEPlants\/ucm346030.htm\" target=\"_blank\" data-beacon=\"{\" p=\"\" mnid=\"\" entry_text=\"\" lnid=\"\" citation=\"\" mpid=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">agrees<\/a>, and has noted that foods containing GMOs are regulated by the agency and must meet the same safety requirements as non-GMO foods. The agency has backed voluntary labeling of GMOs. Still, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has noted that GMO crops&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/usda-gmo-risk-report-537\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-beacon=\"{\" p=\"\" mnid=\"\" entry_text=\"\" lnid=\"\" citation=\"\" mpid=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">could carry an environmental risk<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s2\">Questions of safety aside, proponents of labeling argue that consumers have a right to know as much information as possible about the food they eat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s2\">Andrew Kimbrell, founder and executive director of the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.centerforfoodsafety.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-beacon=\"{\" p=\"\" mnid=\"\" entry_text=\"\" lnid=\"\" citation=\"\" mpid=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Center for Food Safety<\/a>, an advocacy group in favor of GMO labeling, called Roberts&rsquo; legislation &ldquo;a crazy bill&rdquo; and &ldquo;a non-starter,&rdquo; pointing out that it contains &ldquo;science-backed&rdquo; language that would add information about the benefits of biotechnology to food labels. Kimbrell argued that this aspect of the bill would give an unfair, taxpayer-funded advantage to firms relying on GMO crops.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s2\">&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just taking away the right to know [what&rsquo;s in our food],&#8221; Kimbrell told HuffPost. &#8220;It&rsquo;s adding insult to injury.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A key debate regarding products that contain genetically modified organisms &#8212; specifically, the question of whether they should have to carry labels stating as much &#8212; is set for a showdown. Last week, legislation cleared the Senate Agricultural Committee that would block state-level laws mandating GMO labeling. The legislation, which the committee passed with bipartisan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-5621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","tag-agriculture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What&#039;s At Stake In The Senate&#039;s Looming GMO Labeling Battle - Merkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/whats-at-stake-in-the-senates-looming-gmo-labeling-battle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What&#039;s At Stake In The Senate&#039;s Looming GMO Labeling Battle - Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A key debate regarding products that contain genetically modified organisms &#8212; specifically, the question of whether they should have to carry labels stating as much &#8212; is set for a showdown. Last week, legislation cleared the Senate Agricultural Committee that would block state-level laws mandating GMO labeling. 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