Amid reports this week that Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) and ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) were meeting to discuss a compromise on the labeling of genetically modified food, the Coalition for a Safe Affordable Food Supply and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture this week called on lawmakers to make a deal so that the Vermont’s mandatory GMO labeling law, the first in the nation, does not go into effect on July 1, 2016.
Senator Roberts said discussions on the bill are down to three sticking points and he and Senator Stabenow will try to “settle our differences.” “We have to get it fixed” though most major food companies are already prepared to abide by the Vermont law if a solution is not reached, Roberts said.
“We are confident that a Roberts-Stabenow compromise will get 60 votes in the Senate and will be passed by the House before the Vermont law goes into effect,” Pamela Bailey, president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) said. “However, for this to happen, a compromise must be reach this week. The clock is ticking louder by the day, and the stakes could not be higher for the agriculture and food industry,” Bailey said.
Although the law has been a subject of major controversy, the law exempts a number of major food categories from mandatory labeling, including most food products containing poultry and meat. Certain groups have been pushing for a federal standard for mandatory labeling of GMOs for more than a decade; however, thus far, those efforts have failed. As an alternative, such groups have turned to state houses and ballot initiatives to advance the mandatory labeling. Ballot initiatives have failed thus far in California, Washington, Oregon, and Colorado. Vermont, Maine, and Connecticut have all passed mandatory labeling legislation. However, Maine and Connecticut’s laws have trigger clauses that require a critical mass of other states to adopt similar measures before their laws become effective.
In 2014, several food industry groups, led by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), filed a lawsuit to block the Vermont law from going into effect on the basis that it violated the First Amendment. The U.S. District Court in Vermont held that the GMO-labeling requirement was constitutional and upheld most parts of the law. GMA appealed the decision to the Second Circuit of Appeals but the Second Circuit has yet to rule.
