WASHINGTON – EWG applauded the rejection today by congressional leaders of efforts by the food industry to block GMO labeling through a rider in the omnibus spending bill.
“We applaud congressional leaders for rejecting efforts to block state GMO labeling laws in the omnibus,” said Colin O’Neil, EWG’s director of agricultural policy. “An end-of-the-year, must-pass spending bill is the wrong vehicle to address an issue as important as our right to know what’s in our food and how it’s grown.”
The omnibus will also block the sale of recently-approved GMO salmon until a mandatory labeling standard is agreed upon by FDA.
Recent polling shows that nearly 9 out of 10 Americans want mandatory labeling of genetically modified foods. But the food industry tried to attach to the spending bill a provision known as the DARK Act – for Denying Americans the Right to Know – that would block states from requiring GMO labeling.
EWG's O'Neil praised Senators Stabenow, Merkley, Tester, Boxer, Feinstein, Leahy, Sanders, Murphy, Blumenthal, Warren, Markey, Heinrich, Reed, Booker, Shaheen, Mikulski and Reps. DeFazio, Welch, DeLauro, Pingree, McGovern, Blumenauer, Young, Huffman, Polis, Pelosi, Farr and Lowey for their efforts to keep the legislation out of the annual omnibus appropriations bill.
“We need a national, mandatory GMO disclosure system that works for consumers but does not stigmatize GMOs,” O’Neil said. “Americans simply want the right to know what’s in our food – just like consumers in 64 other nations.”
