Hill sees pro and con GMO labeling activity
July 11, 2014 | 11:59 PM
By ALEX GANGITANO
and JERRY HAGSTROM
A House agriculture subcommittee held a hearing on the societal benefits of genetically modified organisms this week, while a co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream joined Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., to protest a bill introduced by Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., that would require a Food and Drug Administration voluntary GMO labeling program, but stop the states from requiring labels.
Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill.
At the House Agriculture Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, professors from Cornell, Harvard and Tuskegee universities all testified to the merits of biotechnology while saying they could find no danger to the public.
“It was important to hold this hearing on the benefits of biotechnology because the stakes are high and biotech has a great story to tell,” said Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., the acting chairman of the subcommittee.
“Our farmers have the vital job of feeding a growing world and biotechnology is part of the solution,” Davis said. “I’m excited for the future and believe the United States must continue to safely innovate through biotechnology to achieve higher crop yields, fewer hungry people and an improved environment.”
Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream company, joined Rep. Peter DeFazio, left, at a new conference promoting GMO labeling legislation. (Alex Gangitano/The Hagstrom Report)
Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company, spoke Thursday at a news conference promoting GMO labels.
“This is not some crazy idea, this is common sense,” Greenfield said.
He listed some of the 64 countries that require labeling, adding, “food companies should be proud of talk about what ingredients are in their food.”
“There you have it, Ben & Jerry’s relabeling of their products won’t cost their consumers a cent,” DeFazio said. “The American people clearly want to know what’s in their food.”
To critics who say consumers won’t understand the labels, DeFazio said, “I would like to think the American people are smarter than that.”
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.
“There has been no independent, peer review science done by the FDA to claim [GMO ingredients] are safe,” he said. “Who knows what kind of information is being withheld from people? ”
Greenfield and the participating groups delivered more than half a million signatures to lawmakers and pushed for support of competing legislation to require labeling at the federal level, introduced by DeFazio and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
“One spoonful at a time, we’ll change the law,” DeFazio concluded.
▪ House Agriculture Committee — Subcomittee Highlights the Benefits of Biotechnology
and JERRY HAGSTROM
A House agriculture subcommittee held a hearing on the societal benefits of genetically modified organisms this week, while a co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream joined Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., to protest a bill introduced by Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., that would require a Food and Drug Administration voluntary GMO labeling program, but stop the states from requiring labels.
At the House Agriculture Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, professors from Cornell, Harvard and Tuskegee universities all testified to the merits of biotechnology while saying they could find no danger to the public.
“It was important to hold this hearing on the benefits of biotechnology because the stakes are high and biotech has a great story to tell,” said Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., the acting chairman of the subcommittee.
“Our farmers have the vital job of feeding a growing world and biotechnology is part of the solution,” Davis said. “I’m excited for the future and believe the United States must continue to safely innovate through biotechnology to achieve higher crop yields, fewer hungry people and an improved environment.”
Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company, spoke Thursday at a news conference promoting GMO labels.
“This is not some crazy idea, this is common sense,” Greenfield said.
He listed some of the 64 countries that require labeling, adding, “food companies should be proud of talk about what ingredients are in their food.”
“There you have it, Ben & Jerry’s relabeling of their products won’t cost their consumers a cent,” DeFazio said. “The American people clearly want to know what’s in their food.”
To critics who say consumers won’t understand the labels, DeFazio said, “I would like to think the American people are smarter than that.”
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore.“There has been no independent, peer review science done by the FDA to claim [GMO ingredients] are safe,” he said. “Who knows what kind of information is being withheld from people? ”
Greenfield and the participating groups delivered more than half a million signatures to lawmakers and pushed for support of competing legislation to require labeling at the federal level, introduced by DeFazio and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.
“One spoonful at a time, we’ll change the law,” DeFazio concluded.
▪ House Agriculture Committee — Subcomittee Highlights the Benefits of Biotechnology
