Bipartisan Voluntary GMO Labeling Bill Introduced in U.S. House

On April 9, 2014, Reps. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) and G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) filed legislation that would create a voluntary system for labeling food products which contain bioengineered (GMO) ingredients. The bill, called the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act (H.R. 4432), would also require that food manufacturers receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the bioengineered components of their products. It would also require FDA to establish a definition for "natural," for the purposes of food labeling. Currently, there is no companion legislation in the Senate.

The bill would pre-empt the ballot initiatives and bills introduced in over two dozen states across the country. In 2012 and 2013, ballot initiatives failed in California and Washington which would have required mandatory labeling of bioengineered food products. Last year, however, Connecticut and Maine enacted legislation that would require such labeling. Surrounding states with a certain population threshold must pass similar legislation before Connecticut and Maine's laws truly go into effect, but manufacturers of foods with bioengineered ingredients want to take action at the national level to prevent a patchwork of state regulations.

Despite its bipartisan nature – in addition to Pompeo and Butterfield, two Republicans and one Democrat are co-sponsors – the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act faces an uncertain future in Congress. The bill was referred to the House Energy & Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who has signaled in the past his support for a voluntary approach to GMO labeling, although there is no clear sense of when the committee may conduct a markup of the bill. The bill was heralded by the Coalition for Safe Affordable Food, a large alliance of American food and beverage manufacturers united behind a federal solution for voluntary labeling instead of the sort of mandatory labeling which would be required by many of the state-level initiatives and bills would require. (The coalition worked with Rep. Pompeo to develop H.R. 4432.) The bill was criticized by the Center for Food Safety, a consumer advocacy organization, who is a driving force behind the state-level activity.

The introduction of the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act coincides with the recent filing of a citizen petition to FDA by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), whose members are food, beverage and consumer product companies, requesting that the agency make a determination of whether foods containing ingredients derived from biotechnology may be labeled "natural." GMA has been central in the effort to prompt action from FDA to preempt what it sees as a harmful patchwork of state GMO-labeling regulations, and to lend clarity to the use of "natural" on food product labels. The citizen petition is viewed as one part of a dual-pronged strategy on the part of industry to work with its regulator to reach a determination that provides greater regulatory certainty. The legislation could very well put pressure on FDA to address the citizen petition and act on the aforementioned items. Likewise, the citizen petition highlights the importance of the issue to a large industry which is important to the health of the American economy, which may prompt action in Congress.