By Jerry Hagstrom
DTN Political Correspondent
WASHINGTON (DTN) -- The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on the labeling bill for genetically modified foods sponsored by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas.
The Roberts bill would ban state labels and establish a federal voluntary labeling program through websites, "smart labels" and toll-free numbers that would become mandatory in three years if food companies do not voluntarily label 70% of their products.
The outcome of the vote is unclear.
The House passed a similar bill last summer. If Roberts' bill passes, the differences between the two bills would be worked out in a conference committee.
The Roberts bill would leave the wording of labels in the hands of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which farm groups and food companies are supporting, Greenwire said late Tuesday.
"That's where you work on the details," said Roger Lowe, the executive vice president of strategic communications at the Grocery Manufacturers Association, according to Greenwire. "You certainly don't want to do it from the Hill."
And, Lowe added, regulators would also have to settle on a definition of what contains ingredients from genetically engineered crops and what does not.
Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said in a news release Wednesday that she does not support the Roberts bill.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who has written his own bill requiring on-package labeling, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., also both spoke against the Roberts bill on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
Merkley and Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who oppose the Roberts bill, have scheduled a news conference today at 10:15 a.m. in the Senate Radio and TV Gallery.
Merkley, Tester and Leahy call the Roberts bill the "Denying Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act," and the senators said in a press advisory that "The DARK Act would prohibit states that have passed their own labeling standards for genetically modified foods, such as Vermont, from implementing their GMO labeling laws. Instead, it would institute a voluntary system through which information about GM ingredients would continue to be withheld from consumers."
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall sent a letter to the Senate on Tuesday pointing out his group's support for the Roberts bill.
National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson sent a letter on Tuesday urging a compromise be found that would reflect the interests of both producers and consumers. The letter did not mention the NFU's vote last week to shift its position on labeling from mandatory to voluntary.
(CC\SK)
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