PRESS RELEASE: Victory! Latest Industry Effort to Block GMO Food Labeling Defeated in Senate
Source: Center for Food Safety
Today the Deny Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act failed to garner enough votes for cloture by a vote of 49-48, effectively defeating the bill. The bill introduced by Senator Roberts (R-KS) faced bi-partisan rejection. The bill would have preempted the genetically engineered food labeling laws in Vermont, Connecticut, Maine and Alaska. In its place it would have put a voluntary labeling scheme that relies primarily on QR codes, websites and call in numbers to inform consumers about the presence of GMOs.
The defeat of the DARK Act is a major victory for the food movement and Americas right to know, said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety. It also is an important victory for Democracy over the attempt of corporate interests to keep Americans in the Dark about the foods they buy and feed their families. Kimbrell concluded.
Only 64 percent of Americans own a smartphone. That means that more than a third of all Americans will not be able to use this ersatz form of labeling. Moreover, as one would expect, those left out are disproportionately the poor and those living in non-urban areas. According to Pew Research Center, only 50% of low income people in the U.S. own a smartphone and only 52% of people living in rural areas own a smartphone. And even those who own smartphones are not guaranteed consistent access to the internet, and far fewer than that have ever used a QR code - less than 20 percent. Smartphones and data plans are expensive, and nearly half those who have smartphones have had to shut off their service at some point due to financial hardship.
Center for Food Safety sent a letter to all members of the Senate pointing out that the Roberts bill was discriminatory against low income and rural Americans, minorities and the elderly, in that large percentages of these groups do not even own smartphones. Accordingly a legal analysis provided by CFS to the Senate indicated that the bill was potentially unconstitutional and a violation of equal protection under the law. The CFS letter also noted that no consumer would ever have the time to check all their products through call in numbers or QR codes and that the bill was in fact a non-labeling bill under the guise of a labeling bill. The bill also raised serious question about consumer privacy.
Read more: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/4301/latest-industry-effort-to-block-gmo-food-labeling-defeated-in-senate
AxionExcel
(755 posts)proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)Food & Water Watch Applauds Defeat of DARK Act
Today, the U.S. Senate voted down a bill that would have blocked state GMO labeling efforts.
03.16.16
[center]Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter[/center]
Washington, D.C.Today, the Senate did the right thing and did not advance a bill from Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) that can best be described as the Denying Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act. The bill would have prevented states from requiring labeling of genetically engineered (GMO) foods and stopped pending state laws that require labeling to go into effect.
Many Senators properly noted that this bill fails to solve the problem it claims to fix. Instead, by blocking state laws from going into effect and replacing them with voluntary measures and impractical alternatives to labeling, it would have ensured that big food processing companies and the biotechnology industry continue to profit by misleading consumers.
Another common message from many Senators was the need to continue negotiating about the contents of this bill. But more compromise will not fix the problem at the core of Senator Roberts approach: Blocking state laws that require GMO labeling will strip away the ability of states to protect the publics right to know what is in its food. Any version of this bill that would result in anything less than mandatory on-package labeling is unacceptable.
People want to know if the food they buy contains GMO ingredients. Its time for Congress to create a mandatory on-package labeling requirement so people can decide for themselves whether they want to eat a food that has been produced using genetic engineering.
The majority of Americans support labeling for GMOs and will hold their elected officials accountable if they vote to strip away transparency about how their food is produced. We urge the Senate to continue to reject bills that would block state labeling laws.
Link from: http://gmwatch.org/news/latest-news/16804-victory-latest-industry-effort-to-block-gmo-food-labelling-defeated-in-senate
houston16revival
(953 posts)Smartphone labels??? First I've heard of it. One of the stupidest things
ever. Spend you day on the phone looking up labels.
Plenty of room for cheating in such a system.
But wait. 3 Senators didn't vote.
Response to houston16revival (Reply #3)
proverbialwisdom This message was self-deleted by its author.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)They are a great group and have lobbied hard. Kudo's to Them!
bananas
(27,509 posts)renate
(13,776 posts)Lobbyists must have spent millions trying to pass that bill. This is awesome!
appalachiablue
(41,131 posts)NNadir
(33,518 posts)...single nuclide polymorphisms.
I will also insist that all foods I eat be certified as having been totally free of any genetic differences from DNA found in the fossil record that is at least as old as the oldest homo sapien fossil, dated of course without appeal to radiocarbon dating, since um, radioactivity is evil, maybe even the oldest homo erectus, although probably younger than the oldest know Australopithecus is OK.
This may leave out, say, corn, wheat, and probably rice but...
I needed to lose weight anyway, and I am, in fact, on a diet.
This said, I realize that it's really, really, really unfortunate that children go blind because of incredible anti-GMO stupidity that prevented the release of golden rice in Asia, and I'm really, really, really, really depressed that much of the third, as well as the first world will be entirely tied to unsustainable pesticide and water use products, and depleted soils, because of a subset of smug bourgeois types who have very little experience with the contents of science books.
Have a nice day tomorrow.
roody
(10,849 posts)proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)Sanders Statement on GMO Labeling Legislation
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
WASHINGTON, March 16 Sen. Bernie Sanders issued the following statement after the Senate blocked legislation by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) that would block Vermont and other states from requiring labels on genetically modified foods:
"I am pleased that Congress stood up to the demands of Monsanto and other multi-national food industry corporations and rejected this outrageous bill. Todays vote was a victory for the American people over corporate interests.
Sen. Roberts' legislation violates the will of the people of Vermont and the United States who overwhelmingly believe that genetically modified food should be labeled. Republicans like to talk about states rights, but now they are attempting to preempt the laws of Vermont and other states that seek to label GMOs.
"All over this country, people are becoming more conscious about the food they eat and the food they serve their kids. When parents go to the store and purchase food for their children, they have a right to know what they are feeding them. GMO labeling exists in 64 other countries. There is no reason it cant exist here."
roody
(10,849 posts)cpwm17
(3,829 posts)Can someone, in your own words, explain what is it about GMO's that make that method of genetic modification any more dangerous than any other method or process of genetic change?
closeupready
(29,503 posts)cpwm17
(3,829 posts)that there is no scientific reason to believe that GMO's are at all dangerous and the only reason this label is marked as containing genetic modified food is the anti-GMO lobby wants to scam the scientifically illiterate customer into believing there is an inherent danger.
That label would be far more useful and informative. What is there to hide?
Still no one has ever answered my question concerning the alleged dangers of GMO's.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)I wouldn't attempt to stop you!
As to your last point, did you try starting a thread about that?
Cheers.
cpwm17
(3,829 posts)I know, right?
closeupready
(29,503 posts)Looking at it from a cost-benefit analysis, it makes $$$ cents to do a Try-To-Recall-Obamacare-50-Bazillion-Times! strategy on this, because in the end, there is tons of money in making GMO products indistinguishable to consumers.