Mar 16, 2016
March 16, 2016 – ARLINGTON, VA – Food Marketing Institute (FMI) issued the following statement from FMI President and CEO Leslie G. Sarasin reacting to a cloture vote that did not get the necessary 60 votes to move legislation to the U.S. Senate that would affirm a national GMO labeling standard. Sarasin said:
“The United States Senate voted today on cloture on a proposal offered by Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) that would do two critical things: 1) establish a national standard for labeling food products that contain GMO ingredients; and 2) preempt any other state approaches that differ from this national standard.
“Based on our conversations with Senators and their staff members, 98 percent of the U.S. Senate seems to agree this would be the right thing to do. Sadly, the question in this debate, and in so many others in the Senate, is how to get 60 Senators who agree on the need for the same policy approach to do what is needed to achieve the goal. We have argued the urgency of the situation for many months and as predicted, have already heard from companies that have had packaging that complies with the GMO labeling required by the state of Vermont rejected by other inconsistent state GMO labeling schemes.
“Today, in spite of weeks and weeks of talks among leaders on both the majority and minority sides of the Senate, as well as thousands and thousands of letters, emails, calls and personal visits from leaders in the grocery industry urging that a solution be found, 60 Senators were not willing to coalesce around a single approach that could achieve 60 votes.
“The real loss is for our grocery customers who are accustomed to enjoying low prices and an abundant availability of products due to tremendous advances of U.S. agriculture and the historical standard in the U.S. that requirements for food labeling be consistent and limited to issues related to health and safety. We know a patchwork system will drive up costs; we will monitor closely to determine the impact. We know we now will have a de facto national GMO labeling system, one that not only has been established by Vermont but also one that exempts from its requirements two of its home state product categories, dairy and maple syrup, and one that very few other than those in Vermont seem to think is the best way to achieve informed disclosure to consumers.
“We offer our deepest thanks to 48 Senators who voted yes, even though they might not have thought that in a perfect world the Roberts proposal was the best solution.”
“The United States Senate voted today on cloture on a proposal offered by Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) that would do two critical things: 1) establish a national standard for labeling food products that contain GMO ingredients; and 2) preempt any other state approaches that differ from this national standard.
“Based on our conversations with Senators and their staff members, 98 percent of the U.S. Senate seems to agree this would be the right thing to do. Sadly, the question in this debate, and in so many others in the Senate, is how to get 60 Senators who agree on the need for the same policy approach to do what is needed to achieve the goal. We have argued the urgency of the situation for many months and as predicted, have already heard from companies that have had packaging that complies with the GMO labeling required by the state of Vermont rejected by other inconsistent state GMO labeling schemes.
“Today, in spite of weeks and weeks of talks among leaders on both the majority and minority sides of the Senate, as well as thousands and thousands of letters, emails, calls and personal visits from leaders in the grocery industry urging that a solution be found, 60 Senators were not willing to coalesce around a single approach that could achieve 60 votes.
“The real loss is for our grocery customers who are accustomed to enjoying low prices and an abundant availability of products due to tremendous advances of U.S. agriculture and the historical standard in the U.S. that requirements for food labeling be consistent and limited to issues related to health and safety. We know a patchwork system will drive up costs; we will monitor closely to determine the impact. We know we now will have a de facto national GMO labeling system, one that not only has been established by Vermont but also one that exempts from its requirements two of its home state product categories, dairy and maple syrup, and one that very few other than those in Vermont seem to think is the best way to achieve informed disclosure to consumers.
“We offer our deepest thanks to 48 Senators who voted yes, even though they might not have thought that in a perfect world the Roberts proposal was the best solution.”
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