GMO Labeling Law Dubbed ‘DARK Act’ Is Being Considered by the Senate

And newly revealed documents show just how far the food industry is willing to go in order to ensure they don’t have to slap GMO labels on their products.

FMI and Grocery Manufacturers Association applauded Roberts’ scheduling of a “markup” on Thursday, Feb. 25, “so that the full committee can consider this proposal in a timely manner”. 64 countries around the world require GE food labeling and have not reported higher food costs as a result. Rather than delivering the mandatory GMO labeling information that the majority of consumers want, this legislation would cause further confusion and tie the hands of states to enact the GMO labeling laws approved by their voters.

The International Dairy Foods Association has praised legislation proposed by Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts that would create a national uniform standard on biotechnology labeling, and called for urgent action to take up and pass the legislation. “The bill would pre-empt a patchwork of mandatory and misleading state GMO labeling laws founded more on scare-tactics than science, and we must move this process forward”. Defenders of food labeling laws insist on knowing what is in the food they eat.

Roberts’ proposal would preempt state GMO food and seed labeling efforts and require USDA to set a standard for voluntary on-package disclosures.

The race to get a bill in place comes as Vermont’s labeling law is expected to take effect in July.

One or both of those compromises could be enough to garner the votes necessary to push this bill through the Senate-and put an end to mandatory labeling laws.

“Time is running out, and consumers will ultimately pay the price of delay and inaction, as multiple studies have found that state mandatory GMO labeling laws will increase a family’s annual grocery bills by hundreds of dollars”. Roberts released a draft of the bill last week that drew applause from many agriculture groups.

Sen. Stabenow and the rest of Congress need to be reminded that they’re supposed to work for us, not the corporations. Important food safety and labeling decisions should be made by the scientists and qualified policymakers at the FDA, not political activists and campaigns. “Instead, Sen. Roberts’ bill would strip away the power of the states to protect the public’s right to know what is in their food”, Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, said in a statement at EcoWatch.