A New Mexico Senate bill that would have changed food-labeling practices has died on the Senate floor.
Albuquerque Business First reports that Senate Bill 18, which would have required companies to label genetically modified food as such, was voted down late last week when the Senate voted not to adopt a committee report.
“Even though SB 18 is dead this year, it’s clear that New Mexicans want and deserve a label that tells them whether or not their food has been genetically engineered,” said the bill’s author, State Sen. Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe), according to Business First. “GE food labels are a right New Mexican consumers deserve and, while this defeat is a set-back, this discussion will continue at the state and national level.”
The bill had passed the Public Affairs Committee earlier in the week, Business First says.
In a news release Friday, the nonprofit Food & Water Watch said the group “is disappointed that the Senate did not stand up for the rights of consumers to have basic information about their food this week, but we are not discouraged.”
