Representative Vern Buchanan (R-FL) sent a letter to President Obama yesterday calling for the president to veto the bipartisan agreement on the GMO labeling bill passed by both the House and Senate just before they adjourned for summer recess. The bill is on the president’s desk and it is anticipated that he will sign the bill into law in the coming weeks.
Buchanan called the legislation a “sham bill that presents to offer disclosure but in truth has so many loopholes that it is meaningless.” Buchanan was one of 36 Republicans in the House who voted against the bill, along with 81 Democrats.
The legislation directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to create a mandatory national labeling program in two years using text, symbols, a telephone number or QR code to indicate that a product contains GMOs. “Food labeling needs to be simple and clear,” Buchanan said in his letter to the president. “QR codes and telephone numbers do not meet that definition. What mother shopping with her children is going to stop in the middle of the food aisle to call a company or go on a website to check the content of every product they would like to buy?”
