Senators Stabenow (D-MI) and Roberts (R-KS) have released their “compromise” GMO labeling bill1, and it’s bad. As expected, the bill creates a GMO labeling scheme that will immediately override the state GMO labeling laws passed in Vermont, Connecticut and Maine, but will not require any labeling for 2 years, while USDA comes up with some vague labeling standard using discriminatory QR codes, websites or 800 numbers.



ON June 29th, this fake GMO labeling bill (S. 764) passed its first legislative hurdle—in what was essentially a test vote—by a vote of 68-29. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill again July 6th!



This could be our last chance to save GMO labeling. Even if you’ve already called and written your Senators, PLEASE DO IT AGAIN. If this bill passes, we’ll be left permanently in the dark about the food we buy and feed our families.



Big Ag and food companies have made it clear which option they support for labeling: QR codes. They know consumers don’t use these codes and that “labeling” via QR codes is really no labeling all.



Only 64% of Americans own a smartphone.2 That means that more than a third of all Americans will not be able to access GMO information if products are labeled with QR codes. Moreover, those left out are disproportionately low income and those living in rural areas. According to Pew Research Center, only 50% of low income people in the U.S. own a smartphone; only 52% of rural Americans own a smartphone; and only 27% of seniors own a smartphone.3 Even those who do own smartphones are not guaranteed consistent access to the internet.4



At the end of the day, a substantial majority of Americans would be deprived of their right to know if GMO labeling were done through QR codes.



To make matters worse, this new DARK Act would immediately stop state labeling laws from going into effect, but would give USDA two years to create new labeling standards! It even goes so far as to exempt from labeling newer genetic engineering techniques like gene editing, which means many GMO products wouldn’t even get a lousy QR code. AND it even nulls state and local GMO seed labeling laws! In short, this is a biotech dream bill.



And if companies choose to use 800 numbers to “label” their GMO products instead of QR codes, consumers would have to call a different 800 number for every product they purchase! All that just to avoid 4 simple words: “produced with genetic engineering.”



Why would Senator Stabenow put forward such an anti-consumer and anti-democratic bill? Just follow the money. In the last five years, Senator Stabenow has raked in over half a million dollars from companies like Monsanto, Dow, and Coca-Cola.5 Senator Stabenow is up for re-election in 2018, and with that kind of money on the line, it’s no wonder she seems hell-bent on stopping meaningful GMO labeling.



If you’re like many across the U.S., you’ve already seen GMO labels like this one showing up on big-name products like Kellogg’s, Frito Lay, General Mills, Mars, ConAgra, Dannon and Campbell’s.6 And contrary to industry talking points, prices did not increase, the food system did not collapse, and there is no chaos. Don’t let Congress take that labeling away!



We all have a right to know what’s in our food, not just those who can afford smartphones.



Tell your Senators to dump this biotech dream bill!