Cramer: GMO Bill Protects Consumers

Press Release

Congressman Kevin Cramer voted for legislation today establishing a national mandatory disclosure standard for food that contains genetically modified (GMO) ingredients.

The House of Representatives approved S. 764, the Biotech Labeling Bill, which now goes to the President's desk for signing. It requires disclosure for all bio-engineered foods except those in which meat, poultry, and egg products are the main ingredient. The labeling mandate does not go into effect until two years after its date of enactment, and allows for several different disclosure options, such as text, symbol, or electronic link.

The bill also gives the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) authority to exempt a food from labeling and prohibits the USDA from considering any food product derived from an animal to be bio-engineered solely because the animal has eaten bio-engineered food.

A year ago, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a voluntary labeling bill, H.R. 1559, the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act. It established a voluntary non-genetically engineered food certification program within the USDA to govern the labeling of food in a nationally uniform manner. In contrast to the House-passed bill, the Senate amendment approved today establishes a mandatory labeling requirement.

This law prevents the State of Vermont from enacting a mandatory labeling law, which took effect July 1. "The Vermont law is a perfect example of why we can't have state-by-state interstate commerce laws," said Cramer. "This is an area where the Constitution specifically provides Congress this authority. While our bill is not perfect, it does retain some flexibility for marketers as they put the labels on."

Cramer said the law protects consumers from situations like what is now happening in Vermont. "The state's new restrictive labeling laws, which aren't consistent with other states, have forced the removal of 3,000 products from store shelves due to improper labeling as per one state's laws."

This legislation was supported by several agriculture manufacturers and producers, including the sugarbeet industry. American Crystal Sugar Company, an agricultural cooperative owned by approximately 2,800 sugarbeet growers along the Red River Valley, operates six processing plants, including two in North Dakota located in Hillsboro and Drayton.

American Crystal Sugar is a member of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association, which issued the following statement today: "This bill gives consumers across the country more information than ever before about genetically engineered ingredients in food while still protecting family farmers and small businesses from the costs and confusion of a patchwork of different state labeling mandates. The food and agriculture community came together like never before to advance a solution that works for consumer and stakeholders up and down the value chain."

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