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The hearing in the Senate agriculture committee comes after the U.S.
House of Representatives in July passed a measure that would block
any mandatory GMO labeling by states and instead set a national
voluntary standard.
The House bill potentially nullified a measure scheduled to take
effect next year in Vermont, which would be the first such mandatory
state labeling law. The food manufacturing industry is worried new
laws will create consumer confusion and boost costs.
The hearing by the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture Nutrition &
Forestry is expected to take testimony from five speakers, including
Stonyfield Farm Inc Chairman Gary Hirshberg, a supporter of
mandatory labeling, and Ronald Kleinman, a physician at the
MassGeneral Hospital for Children who is an opponent of GMO
labeling.
Last week, the Consumers Union and five other consumer organizations
sent a letter to the Senate committee complaining that the lineup of
speakers was not balanced and did not include a consumer
representative. The groups said that "numerous polls have found that
90 percent of consumers favor mandatory labeling of genetically
engineered food."
The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), which represents more
than 300 food companies opposed to mandatory GMO labeling, welcomed
the hearing.
"We are confident that Congress will act on this issue this year
given that members of both Houses and both parties have repeatedly
told us that a 50-state patchwork of laws is not sustainable," GMA
spokesman Brian Kennedy said in a statement.
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The debate over the safety of GMOs heated up in March when the World
Health Organization's cancer research unit classified glyphosate,
the key herbicide sprayed on genetically modified crops, as probably
cancer-causing for humans.
"This is really going to determine if they are going to go the path
of the House... to figure out whether or not to keep consumers in
the dark or if the tides are going to change," said Dana Perls, a
food campaigner with Friends of the Earth, advocating for mandatory
GMO labeling.
(Reporting by Carey Gillam; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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