Sneak DC Bill Alert
by Alliance for Natural Health
Crony GMO “labeling” bill has language that could be used to stop companies from using a non-GMO label! We need to stop this now! Major Action Alert!
We’ve been reporting on the Roberts-Stabenow bill for some weeks now. The public is being told it’s a “mandatory labeling” bill. We call it a “liar labeling” bill—a complete sham that is designed to avoid real mandatory labeling.
Bad news: the Senate just passed it, 63 to 30. Now the Roberts-Stabenow bill moves to the House of Representatives. Time is running out to kill or amend this legislation. We must at the very least amend it.
We previously told you how the bill allows companies to choose how to label their food, and how many companies will force consumers to use a smartphone to scan a bar code on a product’s label just to learn if the product contains GMOs in its ingredients. In addition, there are no penalties for mislabeling food, so a company can simply ignore the law with impunity. However, upon further analysis of the bill, we’ve found something even more troubling: it contains provisions that could take away companies’ ability to label their food as non-GMO!
One provision states that foods which are not required to be labeled as GMO cannot then claim they are non-GMO by default. So far so good. But elsewhere in the bill, there is language that says it’s sufficient for a food which is certified by the USDA’s National Organics Program to be labeled as non-GMO.
While these sentences may seem innocuous, we think they may be intended down the road to allow Big Food to sue companies who label their food as non-GMO if they aren’t members of the USDA’s certified organic program. Keep in mind that many small family farm producers who are actually making organic products do not have the resources to go through the USDA’s costly and lengthy organic certification process. If this bill takes away their ability to label their food as non-GMO, it will make the present situation even worse for them.
Remember, too, that this bill discriminates against the elderly, the poor, and rural populations, substantial portions of which do not own smartphones. Big Food knows that even those who do own smartphones don’t scan these codes: a recent national survey showed that only 16% of consumers have ever scanned a QR code for any purpose. Even if consumers have smart phones and want to scan, who has time to scan every food item in the grocery store? Big Food knows this, which is why they supported this bill.
We’re told that a vote in the House of Representatives on this bill is imminent. If we don’t stop it in the House, this sham bill will be the law of the land. We can’t let that happen.
Major Action Alert! Call or write both your congressional representative and the White House and ask them to oppose or at least amend the Senate’s GMO labeling bill! Please send your message immediately.
Read the full article at Alliance for Natural Health.
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