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Spring may have only just begun, but the food industry has summer on
the mind. In July, Vermont’s mandatory GMO labeling law will go into
effect, and with a federal legislative solution looking less likely,
companies are trying to figure out how to respond to the new standards.
Increasingly, it looks like many in the industry may opt to label GMOs
nationwide.
The candy company Mars is following General Mills’ and
Campbell’s actions as the new standards loom. “Mars is introducing
clear, on-pack labeling on our products that contain GM ingredients
nationwide,” ahead of the Vermont regulations kicking in on July 1, the
company wrote in a blog post published on its website Friday. In
February, the company announced that it would remove artificial colors
from its products, including brightly hued M&Ms.
“We are confident that by labeling genetically engineered
ingredients, Mars, General Mills, Campbell’s and other companies will
maintain the trust of Americans who want the right to know whether their
food contains GMOs,” Scott Faber, senior vice president of government
affairs with the Environmental Working Group, said in a statement. “As
more companies take this step, we hope Congress will see the benefit of
crafting a national GMO labeling solution that works for both industry
and consumers.”
But if the outcome for consumers is the same in all three cases—GMO
ingredients labeled on products nationwide—that isn’t the case on the
legislative front. While Campbell’s is supporting mandatory GMO labeling
on the federal level, General Mills has made it clear in an interview
with Politico that
it continues to support a voluntary federal label standard along the
lines of what’s proposed in the so-called DARK Act. As a member of the
Grocery Manufacturers Association, Mars has also been involved in
lobbying for a voluntary federal standard for GMO labeling.
In light of the labeling announcement, “Mars supports efforts to find
a single, national GMO labeling definition,” company spokesman Jonathan
Mudd wrote in an email to TakePart. “We want to avoid a 50-state
patchwork of different requirements.”
When asked whether the company would support a federal mandatory
labeling standard, such as the one proposed by Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley,
Mudd said, “We can live with mandatory on-pack labeling as envisioned
under the Merkley bill. However, we think the best course is to go
ahead and let the Vermont law come into effect, allow companies to label
accordingly, and then ask the USDA to come up with a national
definition and a national disclosure system.”
Mandatory labeling has broad support from consumers, with more than
90 percent of Americans saying that products made with genetically
engineered ingredients should be labeled as such. At the same time,
there’s a lot of misunderstanding about the most basic elements of the
issue, such as what GMOs are and whether or not they present a health
risk. According to a Pew survey published
last year, for example, 67 percent of respondents said that scientists
did not have a clear understanding of the health concerns that GMOs
present, and there is no sound scientific research linking the
consumption of genetically engineered foods with any health programs.
While the political question of labeling GMO ingredients remains
open, the Vermont law has shown that regional regulation can have a
major influence. Only 626,000 people live in Vermont, but these huge
companies don’t want the financial and procedural burden of having to
label only products that will be sold in the state. So a company such as
Mars, which makes around $11 billion annually on domestic sales, will
change its labeling across the board. With the DARK Act recently voted
down in the Senate and more states considering their own laws, it seems
likely that other companies will follow these three and adopt GMO labels
for products nationwide.
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