Obama signs controversial GMO bill

According to numerous news outlets, President Obama signed into law on July 29 a bill that creates a federal labeling standard for foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The legislation will require brand owners to include on food packaging an electronic code, a text label or some sort of symbol signifying whether or not it contains GMOs. The USDA will have up to two years to write the rules, according to the Associated Press.

Food/retail industry associations praised the bill's signing.

“I am proud of the food retail industry’s role in helping get this legislation approved on Capitol Hill and now signed into law by President Obama," said Leslie Sarasin, president and CEO of the Arlington, Va.-based Food Marketing Institute. "I am convinced it will help circumvent further consumer confusion on the already misunderstood and complex topic of GMOs."

Pamela Bailey, president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, Washington, D.C., said the legislation "will open a new era for transparency" when it comes to consumer-targeted ingredient information.

"Its consistent national standard is far better than a costly and confusing patchwork of different state labeling," she said. "The president’s signing of this legislation also stops, effective immediately, Vermont’s mandatory on-package labeling law that went into effect July 1 and already has left consumers in the state with fewer products on the shelves and higher compliance costs for small businesses."

A number of organizations, however, are not as pleased by the news.

For example, the Center for Food Safety, Washington, D.C., noted that the FDA said the bill’s narrow and ambiguous definition of “bioengineering” would “likely mean that many foods from GE sources will not be subject to this bill” and that it “may be difficult” for any GMO food to qualify for labeling under the bill. In addition, the legislation will allow companies and producers to use QR codes, 1-800 numbers and other "difficult-to-access technology to label food products that contain GMOs, instead of clear on-package text, the organization said.

"This law is a sham and a shame, a rushed backroom deal that discriminates against low-income, rural, minority and elderly populations," said Andy Kimbrell, executive director at the Center for Food Safety. "The law also represents a major assault on the democratic decision-making of several states and erases their laws with a vague multi-year bureaucratic process specifically designed to provide less transparency to consumers.”