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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOrganic Consumers Association Statement on GMO Labeling Law Victory in Vermont
Vermont Lawmakers Pass Countrys First No-Strings-Attached GMO Labeling Law
Organic Consumers Association, April 16, 2014
For related articles and more information, please visit OCA's Millions Against Monsanto and our Genetic Engineering page.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 16, 2014
CONTACT: Organic Consumers Association, Katherine Paul, 207.653.3090
FINLAND, Minn. Today, by a vote of 28-2, the Vermont state Senate passed H.112, a bill to require mandatory labeling of foods sold in Vermont that contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The bill also makes it illegal to call any food product containing GMOs natural or all natural. Unlike bills passed last year in Maine and Connecticut, which require four or five other states to pass GMO labeling laws before they can be enacted, Vermonts law contains no trigger clauses, making it the first clean GMO labeling law in the country.
The bill now goes back to the House which is expected to agree to the Senates amendments, then to Gov. Peter Shumlin who is expected to sign it.
Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), issued the following statement:
Todays victory in Vermont has been 20 years in the making. Ever since genetically modified crops and foods entered the U.S. food supply in the early 1990s, without adequate independent pre-market safety testing and without labels, U.S. consumers have fought to require the labeling of foods containing GMOs.
Consumer demand for mandatory labeling of GMOs spawned a national grassroots movement that has persevered despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent by the biotech and food industries to lobby state lawmakers in Vermont, and to fund anti-labeling campaigns in California (2012) and Washington State (2013).
Today, consumers and a number of principled legislators in Vermont made it clear to Monsanto, Coca-Cola and other opponents of consumers right to know: We will not back down. This movement is here to stay.
We expect that Monsanto will sue the state of Vermont in order to prevent enactment of H.112. We also expect that Monsanto will lose, and the law will go into effect on schedule, on July 1, 2016.
We expect that the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a multi-billion lobbying group representing more than 300 food, pesticide and drug makers, will try to pass their Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2014, introduced last week by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), intended to strip Vermont, and all other states, of their right to pass GMO labeling laws. And we expect that Congress will not pass this law, dubbed the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) Act, which seeks to deny consumers the right to know if their food has been genetically engineered, and deny states the right to enact laws designed to protect public health.
Vermonts landmark victory today will force food companies to either label GMOs in all states, or reformulate their products to be GMO-free in order to avoid stating this product was produced using genetic engineering on their packaging. When Oregon passes a citizens ballot initiative to label GMOs in November, as we believe it will, the biotech and food industries will have lost, beyond the shadow of a doubt, their battle to keep consumers in the dark.
The OCA has worked closely over the past several years with the pro-labeling grassroots movement in Vermont. Today we congratulate Vermont activists for their passionate pursuit of this law, Vermont lawmakers for having the courage to pass the law, and Vermont citizens for being the first in the country to have the benefit of GMO labels on their food. And we reaffirm our commitment to work with Oregon and other states to pass similar laws, and to fight any and all attempts by industry and/or Congress to overturn these laws.
For press inquiries, please contact Katherine Paul by email or phone: 207.653.3090
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots non-profit 501(c)3 public interest organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability. The Organic Consumers Fund is a 501(c)4 allied organization of the Organic Consumers Association, focused on grassroots lobbying and legislative action.
Note to hosts, this is a news release.
On the edit, I thought the announcement was better
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Let's hope it spreads from there!
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)in this session.
Brother Buzz
(36,214 posts)Brickbat
(19,339 posts)ETA: Ah, because the Organic Consumers Association is headquartered there. Interesting!
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)GO VERMONT by the way
Brother Buzz
(36,214 posts)then, again, when it overwhelmingly passed the Senate, all in a whopping two weeks. A press release recapping the events from the Organic Consumers Association is just, well, Nooz.
Perhaps if you culled your Iggy list a bit you might learn these things.