Last updated on June 22nd, 2016 at 08:32 am
Four leaders from America’s agricultural and food industries stressed the urgent need for an agreement on a national GMO labeling standard as Democrat and Republican Senate leaders work to find a bipartisan compromise.
“This is the most important issue currently facing America’s food producing community and one that could do significant harm to our nation’s entire food supply value chain,” said Charles F. Conner, president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives and co-chair of the Coalition for Safe Affordable Food (CFSAF), which recently conducted a media conference call to discuss the issue.
Agriculture-related industries contribute more than $800 billion to the U.S. economy annually. Food manufacturing accounts for 14 percent of all U.S. manufacturing jobs, and the agricultural industry accounts for nearly one in ten of all jobs in the U.S. There is broad bipartisan agreement in Congress that Vermont’s mandatory on-package labeling requirement, which goes into effect July 1, will create significant turmoil for this sector of the nation’s economy, providing substantial incentive to act before the clock runs out.
“Markets for the crops that our farmers are growing today will be lost, and value of farmers’ crops will be diminished,” said Steve Censky, CEO of the American Soybean Association. “Farmers will lose, and ultimately consumers will lose as a safe and valuable tool for sustainable food production is driven from the marketplace by activists who got a state to pass ill-conceived legislation that devastates farmer livelihoods and raises food costs for all Americans.”
“The lack of Senate action really threatens the livelihoods of the farmers we represent,” continued Censky. “Their crops are in the ground and growing, and they have leveraged their farms to take out operating loans in a depressed agricultural economy.”
Censky also highlighted the benefits to conservation and sustainability lost as a result of the potential reformulation away from biotech.
“Agricultural biotechnology has helped to make both insect pest control and weed management safer while safeguarding crops against disease,” Censky said. “It has allowed for a significant reduction in the use of pesticides, and promoted no-till or reduced tillage agriculture systems that help preserve topsoil from erosion and enhance water quality. Today over 90 percent of the soybeans, corn, cotton and sugarbeets grown by U.S. farmers are biotech enhanced because of these very benefits.”
“Farmers are used to responding to the market. The U.S. and world markets have told farmers that they want farmers to produce safe and healthy crops to feed growing U.S. and world populations,” Censky added. “Health agencies from around the world repeatedly have affirmed the safety of biotech crops. Yet because of the lack of Senate action, we are on the verge of having one state with a bit over 600,000 people dictate nationwide food policy and stigmatization of biotechnology through on-pack labeling.”
“We truly believe the outline of a broad bipartisan compromise is there. Now is the time to resolve any remaining differences and get an agreement—today,” said Pamela G. Bailey, president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
The broad-based coalition of agriculture, food processors, manufacturers and retailers has been working hard on this issue to find a workable solution.
“We support giving consumers more information about their food and beverage products,” Bailey said. “We support a national law and a uniform standard on GMO labeling so consumers everywhere have the same labeling standards instead of a patchwork of different labeling mandates.”
Food companies are already taking steps to provide consumers with much more ingredient and product information through SmartLabel, a digital technology solution that can provide consumers more information than can fit on a label.
Leslie G. Sarasin, president and CEO of the Food Marketing Institute, called for passage of a uniform standard for consumers across the country. “I would stress today that Congress has an incredible opportunity in front of it that’s pro-consumer, pro-business and pro-farmer. They can author a new information era for consumers that meets shoppers wherever they are, with the information they seek,” she said.
Although Vermont’s law is not set to take effect until July 1, there are only seven legislative days left for Congress to act because the House of Representatives must also pass the Senate bill and is out of session the last week of June.
