The American Farm Bureau Federation’s Board of Directors voted on Feb. 23 to support efforts of Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) to move forward with a bill to pre-empt state GMO labeling mandates.
“The Senate Agriculture Committee this week is marking up a bill to provide American consumers a wealth of easily accessible, accurate information about GMOs through a voluntary, national GMO labeling program,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said. “The bill would pre-empt a patchwork of mandatory and misleading state GMO labeling laws founded more on scare-tactics than science, and we must move this process forward.”
Duvall said Chairman Roberts’ bill will provide consumers access to information they need to make informed choices in the marketplace. He emphasized, however, that AFBF would closely monitor the bill’s progress to ensure it is compatible with AFBF’s grassroots policy.
“The key provisions of this effort will ensure greater transparency for consumers, with an emphasis on science rather than state-by-state scare tactics,” Duvall said, adding that 750 Farm Bureau members from across the nation are taking that message to Capitol Hill during a grassroots fly-in.
