A mandatory genetically modified (GMO) foods labeling law will take effect on July 1 in Vermont. That has anti-GMO labeling advocates worried. Their response is to try and stop it by pushing barcode technology called the SmartLabel technology, an initiative by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) that would allow customers to use their smartphones to scan a food product’s QR code.
A few weeks ago representatives from the GMA met with U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack, Monsanto and representatives from the GMO labeling movement. The GMA is pushing for a national GMO labeling standard, one that would nullify the Vermont law.
“GMA and a wide range of agriculture and business groups are urging Congress to pass legislation setting a uniform national standard for GMO labeling to replace a patchwork of state labeling mandates that vary from state to state,” the organization said in a statement.
A group of U.S. senators, including Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, sent a letter to the GMA about its proposed QR code labeling scheme, Organic Consumers Association reports.
The senators express concern in the letter about the SmartLabel technology. They recognized that the companies supporting the initiatives are “taking steps towards supplying consumers with the information that they deserve to have access to.” However, they are “troubled that this initiative may have significant anti-consumer loopholes.” Specifically, the senators are concerned that the technology will “make it more difficult for consumers to learn basic information about the food products they are buying, such as whether a product contains a specific allergen or whether the product uses genetically engineered ingredients.”
Already over 30 companies are committed to using SmartLabel, according to the GMA, and almost 30,000 total products are projected to use the technology by the end of 2017. The GMA estimates that within five years over 80 percent of the food, beverage, pet care, personal care and household products consumers buy will be using it. The GMA also projects that by the end of 2017 companies will disclose if 20,000 food products contain GMO ingredients.
Read about barcode labeling
The OCA created a petition addressed to Secretary Vilsack about GMO labeling. The petition asks that he “ensure that Vermont’s law to label foods produced with genetic engineering is enforced, as scheduled, in July 2016.”
