Gov. Peter Shumlin
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, today signed the first state law to require labeling of food for genetically modified ingredients.

Shumlin said in a tweet that he was “proud” to sign the bill because “Vermonters have the right to know what’s in their food.”

The law would not go into effect until 2016, and Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell said he would not be surprised if seed producers sue the state over the labeling requirement.

Cathleen Enright
Cathleen Enright, executive vice president for food and agriculture for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), did not mention challenging the law in a statement today, but said mandated labels are unnecessary and costly for farmers, food producers and consumers.

“Scientific bodies and regulatory officials around the world recognize that foods made from genetically modified crops are as safe as their non-GM counterparts,” Enright said. “And these same GM crops have enabled farmers to produce more on less land with fewer pesticide applications, less water and reduced on-farm fuel use.”

“State labeling laws such as the one signed into law today demonstrate that the GMO labeling discussion deserves a national solution,” Enright said.

“Such an approach has been proposed in the U.S. Congress in the form of the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act (H.R. 4432), which appropriately confirms and explicitly places the authority to require food labeling in this area with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”

That bill was introduced recently by Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan.

A coalition of pro-labeling advocates said during a news conference that they expect lawsuits challenging the law, but that they believe it can be defended.

The advocates said the issue is not food safety, but the consumers’ right to know.

Gary Hirshberg
Gary Hirshberg, chairman and cofounder of Stonyfield Farms, an organic food maker, noted that the label on orange juice made from concentrate contains that information, even though it is not a food safety issue.

The issue, he said, is contradictions about “materiality.” The Commerce Department gives out patents to the seed companies because the genetically modified seeds are materially different, Hirshberg said, but FDA determined in 1992 that no consumer labeling was needed because the foods are not materially different.

The Vermont bill contains a legal defense fund for the bill, but Rebecca Spector of the Center for Food Safety also said the center will support Vermont if there are legal challenges.

Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook called the Vermont law “a watershed victory” for the GMO labeling movement.

The advocates noted that labeling laws are moving through the California and Massachusetts legislature, and that labeling measures are likely to be on the Oregon and Colorado ballots in November.

▪ Vermont H. 112 — An act relating to the labeling of food produced with genetic engineering
▪ H.R. 4432 — Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2014