Posted April 18, 2014
On Wednesday, the Vermont Senate passed a bill, 28-2,
that would make Vermont the first state to enact mandatory labeling of
foods made with genetically modified (GMO) ingredients, according to an article
by Food Safety News available here.
The bill, H.112,
must now go back to the House for final approval of changes made in the
Senate. Then, if the bill is signed by
Governor Peter Shumlin, “which he has said he is likely to do, H.112 would
become effective on July 1, 2016.
Maine and Connecticut have also passed GMO labeling
laws, but they will not take effect until neighboring states pass similar
bills. Vermont’s bill, if passed, would
be the first of its kind with no trigger clause.
Andrea Stander, spokesperson for the Vermont Right to
Know GMOs coalition, said the group expects the biotechnology industry to file
a lawsuit in an effort to stop the enactment of the bill, according to a
Reuters article available here.
“It’s not just Vermont,” said Stander. “This affects everyone who eats. Consumers all across the country have woken
up to the fact that we’ve become an unregulated feeding experiment by the
biotech industry. People want to know if
their foods are made with these ingredients.
This gives people the choices.”
Companies like Monsanto, however, say GMO crops are
proven safe. “This debate isn’t about
food safety,” said Karen Batra, spokeswoman for the Biotechnology Industry
Organization. “Our science experts … point
to more than 1,700 credible peer-reviewed studies that find no legitimate
concern.”
For more information on food labeling, please visit the
National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
