According to Reuters, U.S. food companies and other opponents of genetically modified food labeling notched a key victory on July 14 as the House Agriculture Committee approved a measure banning mandatory labeling as well as local efforts to regulate genetically engineered crops.
“Today’s House Agriculture Committee vote is further evidence of the growing support and momentum in Congress for this bill, and we urge the full House to pass it before the August recess,” said Pamela G. Bailey, Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) president and CEO, in a statement. “This critically important bipartisan legislation will ensure that Americans have accurate, consistent information about their food rather than a 50 state patchwork of labeling laws that will only prove costly and confusing for consumers, farmers, and food manufacturers.”
Groups lobbying for mandatory GMO labeling say the bill is objectionable not only because it would overturn state GMO labeling laws, but because it also prevents state and local governments from regulating GMO crops, and would keep the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from creating a mandatory GMO labeling standard.
