For anyone who wants to know whether there are GMOs in the food supply, a new bill introduced by Congressman Mike Pompeo (R-KS) is essentially a "slap in the face of all average citizens," as former Stonyfield Farms CEO Gary Hirschberg called it.
The bill is titled "The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act" but groups outraged by what it's proposing have dubbed it the "Deny Americans the Right to Know" or DARK Act. And here's why: If passed, the bill would prohibit any state or locality from passing a law requiring genetically engineered (GE) foods to be labeled, and it prevents the FDA from passing any requirements for GE foods. It allows foods labeled as "natural" to contain GE ingredients, and it would permit meat, milk, eggs and dairy from animals fed GE-based food to be labeled GMO-free.
The bill comes straight out of the playbook of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the food industry's lobbying arm. The GMA has been hinting at this type of strategy since last November, when a state GMO-labeling initiative in Washington was defeated thanks to heavy spending by food and biotech firms. In December, the group petitioned the FDA asking them to define "natural" once and for all, specifying that the definition should include foods made with GE ingredients.
The FDA denied that petition in March, so it appears the GMA and biotech companies have taken their fight to Congress. The new bill falls in lock step with legislative language that the GMA proposed earlier in 2014.
In a press call, Rep. Pompeo said that GE foods were "safe," "equally healthy" to non-GE foods and required no special labeling. He also called GE foods "an enormous boon to all humanity."
"It is reprehensible that Representative Pompeo has allowed himself to be goat-roped into this dead-on-arrival legislation," says Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs for the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, which is fighting the bill. "Preempting states from giving consumers the right to know has about as much chance passing through the Senate as a snowball in Sarasota."
Currently, 27 state legislatures are debating bills or ballot initiatives that would require the labeling of GE foods. Connecticut and Maine have both passed GE labeling laws, but both include trigger clauses that prevent the laws from going into effect until neighboring states do the same. Vermont, on the other hand, is very close to passing the first "no strings attached" GE labeling law in the country, says Colin O'Neil, director of government affairs for another pro-labeling group, the Center for Food Safety. "We're not surprised that the food industry is moving with such urgency to block states and consumers from knowing what's in their food," he says. "They're afraid of state action and now they're trying to steal away consumer choice in Congress."
Despite the fact that surveys consistently show that over 90 percent of Americans want GE
foods labeled, the groups opposing Rep. Pompeo's bill are concerned that the massive coffers and lobbying clout of the food and biotech industries will overpower the public's will—so they're trying to get the word out now to get people involved.
Contact your
representatives in Congress and demand that they vote against this pro-GMO bill, and then contact the bill's sponsors—
Rep. Pompeo,
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and
Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC)—and express your outrage at their support!
You can also submit a letter to your representatives on the
Center for Food Safety's website.
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