In the wake of a defeated attempt in California to require labeling of genetically engineered foods and ingredients, multiple other states are jumping on that disabled bandwagon.
Washington State has such a bill pending, and Vermont s House voted in favor of a labeling bill earlier this month. Now, the Connecticut Senate has also taken the plunge. Curiously, the Connecticut bill wouldn t take effect until at least three other states adopted similar labeling laws. House Speaker Sharkey was concerned that such a bill would put the state at an economic disadvantage would the limitation eliminate that threat? It s not clear how that would work.
Campaigns to label genetically engineered foods have sprung up in over 35 states this season, but so far none has been successful at getting such bills passed into law. Further, yesterday the US Senate voted 71-27 to defeat a move to amend the farm bill to allow states to require GMO labeling.
ACSH s Dr. Ruth Kava comments, Hopefully, these efforts will be as successful as the proposition defeated in California last fall. These proposed state bills are based on the misapprehension that genetic engineering somehow makes foods unhealthful or dangerous in some arcane way. But such foods and ingredients are among the most thoroughly tested ones in the marketplace, and there is no scientific basis for labeling them, which is why the FDA doesn t require it.
