The U.S. Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on a bill that would ban state GMO labeling laws but give the food industry three years to get at least 70 percent of its food products into the Grocery Manufacturers Association SmartLabel program before allowing the federal government to create mandatory labeling rules.
The measure’s author, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, says he continues to seek support from Senate Democrats in order to get the votes needed to pass the bill.
“It’s going to be tough but we think we have a sound science argument on our side and 725 [agriculture organizations],” Roberts told reporters late Monday, according to POLITICO. “I’ve never seen this type of support from the agriculture industry.”
The Texas Farm Bureau and American Farm Bureau Federation support Roberts’ bill, S 2609.
Negotiations in the U.S. Senate continue, and a key Democratic vote is Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Debbie Stabenow. The Hagstrom Report detailed today that Stabenow is not yet supporting the Roberts bill.
“Unfortunately, the Roberts proposal is nothing more than the status quo for consumers who want information about the food they are purchasing,” Stabenow said, according to the Hagstrom Report. “I believe that if the federal government is going to take away state’s rights, we have the obligation to create a national system of disclosure that provides information to consumers in an easily accessible way.”
Stabenow voted against the Roberts bill when the Senate Agriculture Committee approved it. Roberts added the mandatory provision before he brought the bill to the Senate floor on Monday night.